SERMONS 

ON   SUBJECTS   CONNECTED   WITH 

THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 


SERMONS 


ON  SUBJECTS   CONNECTED   WITH 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


S.  R.' DRIVER,  D.D. 

a-.GirS    PROFESSOR   OF    HEBREW,    AiSD   CANON    OF   CHRISTCHURCH,    OX'FOKr 

EXAMINING    CHAPLAIN    TO    THE    LORD    BISHOl'    OF    SOUTHWELL 

AUTHOR  OF 

"AN    INTRODUCTION    TO   THE    LITERATURP:   OF    THE   OLD    TESTAMi:\T  " 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 


I6( 


VJ 


PREFACE. 


Of  the  Sermons  collected  in  the  present  volume,  the  first 
five  and  the  seventh  were  preached  before  the  University  of 
Oxford,  the  sixth  was  preached  before  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  the  last  five  were  preached  in  the  Cathedral  at 
Christchurch.i  1  he  volume  (the  idea  of  which  is  due  to 
the  suggestion  of  a  friend)  may  be  regarded  as  supplement- 
ary, to  a  certain  extent,  to  my  Introduction  to  the  Litet'ature 
of  the  Old  Testament^  published  in  1891.  Although,  as  I 
hope,  that  work  contained  sufficiently  clear  indications  that 
I  was  not  indifferent  to  the  theological  aspect  of  the  Old 
Testament,  or  to  the  permanent  value  attaching  to  the  moral 
and  religious  teaching  conveyed  in  it,  the  plan  prescribed  to 
me  precluded  my  touching  upon  these  subjects  otherwise 
than  incidentally ;  and  the  present  volume,  though  not, 
of  course,  a  systematic  treatise,  will,  I  trust,  illustrate  more 
completely  how  I  view  them,  and  in  what  directions  I  con- 
ceive that  the  Old  Testament  may  be  fruitfully  and  intel- 
ligently studied,  and  be  made  practically  useful  at  the 
present  day.  It  appears  to  be  sometimes  supposed  that  a 
critical  view  of  the  literature  and  history  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  incompatible  with  any  real  sense  for  the  spiritual  and 
moral  teaching  which  it  contains  :  it  is  my  hope  and  wish 
that  the  pages  which  follow  may  suffice  to  show  how  very  far 

^  The  first  seven  Sermons  have  been  printed  before,  at  the  time 
when  they  were  delivered,  in  the  Oxford  University  Herald,  the  Oxford 
Reviciv,  the  Oxford  Magazine,  or  (No.  6)  the  Cambridge  Revirw,  Nos. 
I  and  5  also  in  the  CJiiireh  of  England  Pulpit  and  Ecclesiastical  Revicxo. 


vi  PREFACE. 

this  is  from  being  the  case.  As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  the 
adoption  of  critical  conclusions,  such  as  those  which  I  have 
expressed  myself,  "implies  no  change  in  respect  to  the 
Divine  attributes  revealed  in  the  Old  Testament ;  no  change 
in  the  lessons  of  human  duty  to  be  derived  from  it ;  no  change 
as  to  the  general  position  (apart  from  the  interpretation  of 
particular  passages)  that  the  Old  Testament  points  forward 
prophetically  to  Christ."  ^  The  present  collection  of 
Sermons  will,  I  hope,  serve  to  illustrate,  from  different  points 
of  view,  the  truth  of  the  positions  here  affirmed.  It  only 
remains  to  add  that  the  last  five  sermons  are  of  simpler 
structure  than  the  rest,  and  are,  in  the  main,  more  directly 
exegetical :  my  aim  in  publishing  them  has  been  to  show 
more  particularly  how  "the  specific  lessons  of  the  Old 
Testament"  may  be  enforced,  and  its  "providential  pur- 
pose "  recognized,^  without  interpreting  its  words  in  a  sense 
alien  to  their  original  meaning  or  context,  or  otherwise 
deviating  from  a  strict  application  of  critical  and  exegetical 
canons. 

As  an  introduction,  I  have  prefixed  a  Paper,  read  at  the 
Church  Congress  at  Folkestone,  October  6,  1892,  on  the 
permanent  moral  and  devotional  value  of  the  Old  Testament 
for  the  Christian  Church. 

'  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  xv  (ed.  4, 
p.  xvi). 

-  Com  p.  Prof.  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick's  Divine  Library  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment (1891),  p.  118. 


ADDENDUM. 


P.ige  27,  note. — The  series  of  papers  by  Professor  Ryle,  here  referred 
to,  have  been  re-published  in  a  single  volume,  under  the  title,  The 
Early  Narratives  of  Genesis  (1892). 


CONTENTS. 


ON  THE  PERMANENT  MORAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL 
VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  FOR  THE 
CHRISTIAN   CHURCH  

SERMON 

I.  EVOLUTION   COMPATIBLE  WITH    FAITH 

II.  ISAIAH'S   VISION  

III.  THE   IDEALS   OF  THE   PROPHETS        

IV.  GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN   A    FUTURE   STATE 
V.  THE   HEBREW  PROPHETS  

VI.  THE  VOICE   OF   GOD    IN   THE   OLD    TESTAMENT 

VII.  INSPIRATION       

VIII.  THE   FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS 

IX.  THE  WARRIOR   FROM   EDOM 

X.  THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH    PSALM 

XI.  THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS      

XII.  MERCY,   AND    NOT   SACRIFICE  


IX 

I 

28 

50 
72 

99 
119 

143 
163 
179 
190 
204 
217 


THE  PERMANENT  MORAL  AND  DEVOTIONAL 

VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  FOR  THE 

CHRISTL\N  CHURCH.i 

The  subject  on  which  I  have  been  invited  to  read  is  one, 
I  need  hardly  say,  which  it  is  impossible  to  treat  with  any 
approach  to  completeness  in  the  limited  space  of  twenty 
minutes.  All  that  I  can  do  is  to  illustrate  briefly  some  of 
its  more  salient  aspects,  conscious  all  the  time  that  I  am 
leaving  much  unsaid,  and  fortunate  in  the  thought  that 
thoie  who  follow  me  will  have  the  opportunity  of  supplying 
my  omissions.  Without  in  any  degree  derogating  from  the 
absolute  ideal  of  life  and  conduct  presented  in  the  New 
Testament,  I  shall  endeavour  to  show,  in  the  time  at  my 
disposal,  that  the  Old  Testament  possesses  distinctive 
characteristics  of  its  own,  which  must  ever  secure  for  it  a 
paramount  position  and  influence  in  the  Church. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  and  generally,  the  Old  Testament 
has  a  value,  peculiar  to  itself,  from  the  fact  that  the  truths 
which  it  inculcates  are  set  forth  with  great  variety  of 
external  form,  and  with  superlative  grace  of  imagery  and 
diction.  These  features,  though  it  is  true  they  are  but 
external  ones,  must  not  be  under-rated  in  our  estimate  of 
the  Old  Testament  as  a  whole.  The  preacher,  not  less 
than  the  poet  or  the  orator,  makes  it  his  aim  to  impress, 

^  A  paper  read  at  the  Church  Congress  at  Folkestone,  October  6, 
1892. 


X  PERMANENT    MORAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL 

by  a  choice  and  appropriate  literary  style,  those  whom  he 
addresses;  and  had  the  truths  which  the  Bible  enunciates 
been  presented  in  an  unformed,  uncultured  literary  garb, 
without  tlic  melody  of  rhythm  and  diction  which  actually 
accompanies  them,  we  may  be  sure  that  its  influence  upon 
mankind  would  have  been  very  much  less  than  it  has  been. 
The  variety  of  form,  and  the  literary  excellence,  displayed  in 
the  Old  Testament  are  both  surprising.  There  is  history, 
and  biography,  both  penetrated,  more  or  less  visibly,  by 
ethical  and  religious  ideas ;  there  is  the  oratory  of  Deuter- 
onomy and  the  prophets,  the  aim  of  w^hich  is  to  enforce 
more  directly  the  same  truths ;  there  is  poetry,  of  varied 
types,  lyrical,  elegiac,  and  even — in  a  rudimentary  form — 
dramatic,  in  which  the  emotions,  fired  by  religious  ardour, 
or  suffused  (Song  of  Songs)  by  a  warm  moral  glow,  find 
deep  and  pure  expression.  And  each  of  these  literary  forms 
possesses,  all  but  uniformly,  that  peculiar  charm  and  grace 
of  style,  which  entitles  it  to  be  ranked  as  "  classical." 
History,  oratory,  poetry,  each  is  of  a  type  which,  in  its 
kind,  cannot  be  surpassed :  the  bright  and  picturesque 
narrative  of  the  historical  books,  the  grand  and  impressive 
oratory  of  the  prophets,  the  delicacy  and  brightness  of  the 
Hebrew  lyric,  vie  alternately  with  one  another  in  fascinating 
the  reader,  and  compelling  his  admiration  and  regard. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  from  the  form  of  the  literature  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  its  substance.  And  here  it  must  at  the 
outset  be  observed,  that  the  provinces  of  morality  and  re- 
ligion are  in  the  Old  Testament  so  closely  associated  that  it 
is  difficult  to  separate  absolutely  its  moral  and  devotional 
aspects,  and  to  treat  them  independently ;  moral  duties  are, 
for  instance,  often  inculcated  or  exemplified  in  a  manner 
which  directly  stimulates  the  devotional  impulses  ;  but  as 
far  as  possible,  I  will  deal  with  the  two  aspects  of  my  subject 
successively. 


VALUE   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  XI 

(i.)  I.  The    Old   Testament   is  of  permanent  value  on 
account  of  the  clearness  and  emphasis  with  which  it  insists  on 
the  primary  moral  duties,  obligatory  upon  man  as  man  ;  and 
not  only  on  what  may  be  termed  the  more  private  or  indi- 
vidual virtues,   but  also  on  the  great   domestic  and   civic 
virtues,  upon   which  the  happiness  of  the  family,  and  the 
welfare  of  the   community,  alike   depend.      Truthfulness, 
honesty,  sincerity,  justice,  humanity,  philanthropy,  generosity^ 
disinterestedness,    neighbourly   regard,    sympathy  with    the 
unfortunate  or  the  oppressed,  the  refusal  to  injure  another 
by  word  or  deed,  cleanness  of  hands,  purity  of  thought  and 
action,  elevation  of  motive,  singleness    of  purpose — these, 
and  such  as  these,  are  the  virtues  which,  as  we  know,  have 
ever  evoked   the  moral  admiration  of  mankind,  and  they 
are  the  virtues  which,  again  and  again,  in  eloquent  and  burning 
words,  are  commended  and  inculcated  in  the  pages  of  the 
Old  Testament.     And  corresponding  to  this  high  apprecia- 
tion of  moral  qualities,  there  is  its  correlative — a  hatred  of 
wrong-doing,  and  a  profound  sense  of  sin,  which  is  stamped, 
if  possible,  yet  more  conspicuously  upon    the  literature  of 
ancient  Israel.     I  wish  I  had  time  to  quote  illustrations  ; 
but  after  all  they  would  be  superfluous  ;  for  those  who  hear 
me  will,  I  am  sure,  be  conscious  already  of  familiar  echoes 
sounding  in  their  ears  and  substantiating  what  I  have  said. 
I  will  only  observe,  that  such  teaching  is  to  be  found  in  all 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament.     Indirectly,  for  example,  the 
moral  value  of  qualities  such  as  I  have  named  is  frequently 
illustrated  in  the  historical   books.     The    prophets   devote 
their  finest  and  most  impressive  periods  to  asserting  the 
claims  of  the  moral  law  upon  the  obedience  of  mankind, 
and  to  the  rebuke  of  vice  and  sin.     In  the  poetical  writings, 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  abounds  in  similar  moral  teaching ; 
while   in   the   fifteenth   chapter   of  the   Book  of  Job,  for 
instance,  the  agonies    of  a  burdened    conscience,  and  in 


xii        PERMANENT   MORAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL 

the  thirty-first  cliapter  of  the  same  book  the  portrait  of  a 
noble  and  elevated  character,  untainted  even  in  secret  by 
unworthy  thouglits  or  evil  desires,  are  drawn  with  surprising 
clearness  and  force  of  moral  insight.  Not  only,  however, 
are  moral  duties  inculcated  as  such ;  the  intimate  connection 
of  religion  with  morality  is  also  strongly  emphasized.  The 
essential  association  of  the  religious  character  with  the 
moral  law  is  never  lost  from  sight ;  and  the  moral  con- 
ditions of  pleasing  God  are  repeatedly  and  unambiguously 
insisted  on.  Although  the  particular  form  in  which  this 
truth  was  commonly  forgotten  in  ancient  times,  viz.,  the 
idea  that  God's  favour  could  be  propitiated  by  abundant 
sacrifices,  irrespectively  of  the  spiritual  temper  and  moral 
dispositions  of  the  worshipper,  is  no  longer  prevalent,  yet 
there  is  still  danger  of  its  being  overlooked  in  other  ways. 
But  in  the  Old  Testament  its  importance  is  fully  recognized ; 
and  the  prophets,  in  passages  glowing  with  warm  and 
impassioned  eloquence,  set  it  forth  with  peculiar  directness 
and  force. 

2.  The  Old  Testament  affords  examples  of  faith  and 
conduct,  of  character  and  principle,  in  many  varied 
circumstances  of  life,  which  we  may  in  different  ways  adopt 
as  our  models,  and  strive  to  emulate.  It  is  not  of  course 
pretended  that  the  characters  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
devoid  of  flaws  or  blameless  :  some  are  limited  by  the  moral 
and  spiritual  conditions  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  others 
exhibit  personal  shortcomings  peculiar  to  themselves  :  but 
these  faults  are  generally  discoverable  as  such  by  the  light 
of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Old  Testament  itself, 
and  none  ought  to  be  mistaken  for  virtues  by  members  of  the 
Christian  Church,  who  alone  on  the  present  occasion  come 
into  consideration.  In  the  historical  books  such  virtues  as 
kindness  and  fidelity,  modesty  and  simplicity,  courtliness  of 
action  and  demeanour  (implying  self-discipline  and  repres- 


VALUE   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  XIU 

sion),  patriotic  feeling,  domestic  affection  and  friendship,  are 
abundantly  exemplified.  In  the  narratives  of  events  belonging 
to  a  distant  past,  from  which  precise  historical  reminiscences 
cannot  reasonably  be  supposed  to  have  been  preserved,  and 
in  which  therefore  an  ideal  element  may  naturally  be  inferred 
to  be  present,  the  characters  are  so  delineated  as  to  be 
typically  significant  :  the  outlines  supplied  by  tradition  are 
so  filled  in  by  the  inspired  narrators  with  a  living  vesture  of 
circumstance,  expression,  and  character,  that  the  heroic 
figures  of  antiquity  become  patterns  to  succeeding  gener- 
ations. The  nobility,  the  dignity,  the  disinterestedness,  the 
affection  and  love  for  his  people,  which  mark  the  character 
of  Moses,  cannot  but  impress  every  reader.  In  the  books 
of  Samuel,  in  spite  of  faults,  sometimes  grave  ones,  we  can 
trace,  in  the  character  of  David,  the  softening  and  elevating 
influence  of  his  religion  ;  we  can  see  that,  both  in  his 
private  and  in  his  public  capacity,  he  stood  on  a  very 
different  level  from  the  heathen  monarchs  of  antiquity.  In 
a  book  like  Ruth  we  can  observe  the  religious  spirit 
sanctifying  and  ennobling  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  :  the 
fact  that  the  scenes  and  conversations  are  doubtless  to  some 
extent  idealized,  and  owe  their  form  to  the  literary  skill  of 
the  writer,  does  not  detract  from  their  didactic  value ;  the 
picture,  even  if  in  particular  features  it  reproduces  the 
narrator's  ideal  rather  than  the  actual  and  literal  facts,  is  not 
less  significant,  not  less  instructive,  as  an  example  of  life 
and  manners,  to  ourselves.  In  the  biographies  of  the 
prophets  we  see  exemplified,  partly  in  such  details  of  their 
lives  as  have  come  down  to  us,  partly,  and  more  fully,  in 
their  discourses,  sincerity  of  purpose,  uncompromising 
opposition  to  vice  and  sin,  devotion  to  principle,  sympathy 
with  suffering,  national  feeling,  and  generally  a  high  and 
disinterested  standard  of  moral  action,  maintained  under 
many  different  circumstances,  and  in  many  varied  situations 


xiv       PERMANENT   MORAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL 

of  both  public  and  private  life,  with  a  consistency  and 
unflinching  dev^otion  which  must  command  the  admiration, 
and  arouse  the  emulation,  of  all  time. 

3.  The  Old  Testament  is  of  permanent  value  on  account 
of  the  great  ideals  of  human  life  and  society  which  it  holds 
up  before  the  eyes  of  its  readers.  I  allude  in  particular  to 
those  ideal  pictures  of  a  renovated  human  nature,  and 
transformed  social  state,  which  the  prophets  loved  to 
delineate — the  pictures  of  human  nature,  freed  from  the 
imperfections  and  corruptions  which  actually  beset  it,  in- 
spired by  an  innate  devotion  to  God  and  right,  and  ruled  not 
by  law  as  a  command  dictated  from  without,  but  by  moral 
impulses  springing  up  instinctively  within  the  breast :  the 
pictures  of  human  society,  no  longer  harassed  by  the  strife 
of  opposing  interests  and  parties,  or  honey-combed  by 
oppressions  and  abuses,  but  held  together  by  the  bonds  of 
love  and  friendship,  each  eager  to  advance  his  neighbour's 
welfare,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  united  in  a  federation 
of  peace  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  God  of  Israel. 
These  ideals  have,  alas !  not  yet  been  reaHzed  so  completely 
as  the  prophets  anticipated  :  the  passions  and  wilfulness  of 
human  nature  have  proved  in  too  many  cases  obstacles 
insuperable  even  by  the  influences  of  Christianity ;  but 
progress,  we  may  trust,  has  been  made ;  and  meanwhile 
these  ideals  remain,  the  wonder  and  the  delight  of  the 
ages,  to  kindle  our  aspirations,  to  brace  our  efforts,  to  point 
out  to  us  the  goal  which  human  endeavour  should  exert 
itself  to  realize,  and  which  human  society  may  one  day  hope 
to  attain. 

4.  The  Old  Testament  must  always  share  with  the  New 
Testament  the  position  of  forming  a  standard  of  pure  and 
spiritual  religion,  in  contradistinction  to  all  formalism  or 
abstract  systems.  The  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
might  lend  themselves,  and   in  the  late  period   of  Jewish 


VALUE    OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  XV 

history  did  lend  themselves,  to  exaggeration  or  perversion, 
in  the  direction  of  outward  ceremonialism,  are  just  those 
which  were  abrogated  by  the  coming  of  Christ ;  and  for 
those  who  do  not  live  under  the  Levitical  dispensation, 
the  danger  from  this  source  has  consequently  passed  away. 
The  more  directly  moral  and  spiritual  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament  display  still  the  freshness  and  the  power  which 
they  possessed  when  they  were  first  written.  The  pure 
moral  perceptions  of  the  prophets,  the  unadulterated 
spiritual  intuitions  of  the  psalmists,  must  ever  form  a 
standard  of  faith  and  action,  recalling  men,  when  in  peril 
of  being  led  astray  to  trust  in  the  external  rites  of  religion,  or 
to  forget  the  true  nature  of  spiritual  service,  to  a  sense  of  the 
real  demands  which  God  makes  of  His  worshippers,  and 
of  the  character  and  conduct  in  which  He  truly  delights. 

(ii.)  I  turn  to  consider  the  value  of  the  Old  Testament 
for  devotional  purposes.  And  here  our  thoughts  move 
naturally,  in  the  first  instance,  towards  the  Book  of  Psalms, 
in  which  the  ripest  fruits  of  Israel's  spiritual  experience 
are  gathered  together,  and  the  religious  affections  find 
their  richest  and  completest  expression.  It  is  difficult, 
within  the  compass  of  a  few  words,  to  characterize  the 
Psalter  with  any  adequacy.  In  the  Psalter  the  religious 
affections  manifest  themselves  without  restraint,  and  the 
soul  is  displayed  in  converse  with  God,  disclosing  to  Him, 
in  sweet  and  melodious  accents,  its  manifold  emotions,  its 
hopes  and  its  fears,  its  desires  and  its  aspirations.  In  the 
Psalms  we  hear  the  voice  of  penitence  and  contrition,  of 
resignation  and  trust,  of  confidence  and  faith,  of  yearning 
for  God's  presence  and  the  spiritual  privilege  of  communion 
with  Him,  of  reverential  joy  and  jubilation,  of  thanksgiving 
and  exultation,  of  confession  and  supplication,  of  adoration 
and  praise;  we  hear  meditations  on  tlie  great  attributes  of 
the  Creator,  on  His  hand  as  seen  in  nature  or  in  history,  on 


xvi        TERMANENT   MORAL   AND   DEVOTIONAL 

the  problems  of  humm  life,  and  on  the  pathos  of  human 
existence ;  and  we  hear  all  these  varied  notes  uttered  with  a 
depth,  an  intensity,  and  a  purity,  which  stand  unparalleled 
in  religious  literature,  and  which  the  poets  and  hymn-writers 
of  subsequent  ages  have  been  content  to  look  up  to  as  to 
an  unapproachable  model.  Love,  and  trust,  and  faith,  and 
such-like  sacred  affections,  are  set  before  us  in  the  Book  of 
Psalms,  not  as  commanded,  or  enjoined  as  a  duty  from 
without,  but  as  exercised,  as  the  practical  response  offered 
by  the  believing  soul  to  the  claims  laid  upon  it  by  its 
Maker,  as  the  spontaneous  outcome  of  the  heart  stirred  by 
god-like  emotions.  The  historical  critic  may  question,  and 
question  justly,  whether  the  Psalms  are  so  largely  as  is 
commonly  supposed  a  product  of  the  earlier  period  of 
Israel's  history  :  he  will  not  question  the  justice  of  Dean 
Church's  judgment  when,  in  His  well-known  essay  on  the 
Psalms,^  he  claims  that  they  lift  us  into  an  atmosphere  of 
religious  thought  and  feeling,  which  is  the  highest  that  man 
has  ever  reached,  and  that  for  their  faith  in  the  unseen,  their 
perception  of  the  character  of  God,  and  the  manifold  forms 
in  which  their  affections  expand  and  unfold  themselves 
towards  Him,  their  authors  stand  above  the  religious 
poets  of  every  other  age  or  clime,  and  enjoy  a  pre-eminence 
from  which  they  can  never  be  dethroned.  As  a  devotional 
manual,  as  a  manual  displaying  the  soul  in  closest  and  yet 
freest  and  most  manifold  converse  with  God,  the  Book  of 
Psalms  must  retain  permanently  in  the  Church  the  unique, 
unapproachable  position  which  it  has  ever  held. 

Although,  however,  the  devotional  spirit  finds  its  highest 
as  well  as  its  most  familiar  expression  in  the  Psalter,  it  is  by 
no  means  confined  to  this  part  of  the  Old  Testament.  As 
I  remarked  before,  there  are  many  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment— for  instance,  the  descriptions  by  the  prophets  of  tlie 

1  In  The  Gifts  of  Civilisation  (iSSo),  p.  391  ff. 


VALUE   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  xvii 

marvellous  attributes  of  the  Deity,  His  glory,  and  majesty, 
and  mighty  acts — which,  though  not  directly  designed  for 
devotional  purposes,  nevertheless  arouse  the  emotions  of 
adoration  and  wonder,  and  stir  the  devotional  instincts. 
Thus  the  Book  of  Job,  especially  if  read  with  the  aid  of  a 
sympathetic  commentary,  such  as  that  of  Prof.  A.  B. 
Davidson  (in  the  Ca??ibridge  Bible  for  Schools),  will  be 
found  to  contain,  side  by  side  with  outbursts  of  defiant 
boldness,  passages  of  supreme  poetic  delicacy,  and  instinct 
with  devotional  feeling,  the  sense  of  God's  omnipresence 
and  vastness,  the  moral  significance  of  suffering,  the  pathetic 
yearning  of  the  patriarch's  soul  to  hear  the  voice  of  the 
Creator  calling  him  again  to  His  fellowship  after  the  long 
period  of  seeming  estrangement.  The  exilic  chapters  of  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  also  contain  frequent  passages  of  the  highest 
devotional  suggestiveness  and  beauty :  I  may  instance, 
in  particular,  the  beautiful  thanksgiving,  confession,  and 
supplication,  contained  in  Is.  Ixiii.  7 — Ixiv.  12.  There  are 
besides  numerous  ideas,  corresponding  to  different  aspects 
of  the  devotional  temper,  which  are  presented  with  unique 
clearness  and  emphasis  in  the  Old  Testament.  Consider,  for 
instance,  the  warmth  with  which,  in  Deuteronomy,  the  love 
of  God  is  insisted  on  as  the  primary  motive  of  human  action  ;  ^ 
how  in  the  same  book  (nine  times),  and  in  writings  influenced 
by  it,  the  devotion  of  the  whole  being  to  God  is  expressed 
by  the  significant  phrase,  to  search  after,  to  serve,  or  to  love 
Him,  ''  with  all  the  heart  and  with  all  the  soul ;  "  -  how,  also 
in  the  same  book,  the  injunction  is  reiterated,  to  "rejoice 

^  Deut.  vi.  5,  X.  12,  xi.  i,  13,  22,  xiii.  3,  xix.  9,  xxx.  6,  16,  20. 

2  Deut.  iv.  29,  vi.  5,  x.  12,  xi.  13,  xiii.  3,  xxvi.  16,  xxx.  2,  6,  10  ;  Josh, 
xxii.  5,  xxiii.  14  ;  I  Kinys  ii.  4,  viii.  48  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  3,  25  ;  2  Chron.  xv. 
12  (comp.  the  writer's  Introduction,  pp.  73,  94,  97,  190}.  The  heart  \% 
mentioned  as  the  organ,  according  to  ancient  Hebrew  psychology,  of 
tlie  intellect  (cf.  Jer.  v.  21  ;  Hos.  vii.  ii,  R.  V.  inars;.),  the  soie/  o.s  the 
organ  of  the  desires  and  affections  (cf.  Dcut.  xii,  20,  xiv.  25,  xxiv.  1 5 
[Hi.  '*  lifteth  up  his  sou/  towards  it"],  Ps.  xxv.  I,  L^.  xxvi.  9,  Jer.  xxii. 
27,  R.  V.  marg.,  Mic,  vii.  i). 


xviii      PERMANENT   MORAL  AND   DEVOTIONAL 

before  God  "  (viz.  at  a  sacrificial  meal)  with  a  grateful  and 
generous  heart ;  ^  how  in  other  books — for  time  compels  me 
to  speak  generally — the  fear  of  God,  the  observance  of  the 
ways,  the  commandments,  the  precepts  of  God,  the  resolu- 
tion to  obey  Him  and  hearken  to  His  voice,  the  desire  to 
seek  and  to  find  Him,  the  determination  to  do  His  pleasure 
and  to  know  Him,  the  privilege  of  the  righteous  to  have 
access  to  God  and  to  call  upon  Him  at  all  times,  2  the 
blessedness  of  rejoicing,  and  even  of  delighting,  in  Him,^ 
the  joyousness  of  His  service,  the  grateful  sense  of  His 
protection  or  of  His  regard,  are  again  and  again  expressed, 
and  dwelt  upon  with  an  ardour  which  is  never  satisfied, 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  is  unrestrained,  with  a  devotion 
which  knows  no  bounds.  And  it  is,  too,  the  high  merit  of 
the  devotion  of  the  Old  Testament  that  it  is  always  a  manly 
devotion  :  in  contrast  to  the  tone  of  some  modern  writers, 
who  have  sought  unwisely  to  surpass  their  models,  the 
sentiment  is  never  effeminate,  the  pathos  never  exaggerated 
or  morbid.  It  is  no  small  achievement,  it  may  be  observed 
in  passing,  to  have  framed  what  may  almost  be  termed  a 
complete  devotional  nomenclature,  which  formulates  tersely 
and  forcibly  the  great  duties  and  offices  of  a  spiritual 
religion,  and  which,  moreover,  with  surprising  elasticity, 
lends  itself  readily  to  adoption  by  another  language.  This, 
however,  is  what  the  religious  teachers  of  ancient  Israel 
have  achieved.  The  illustrations  which  I  have  taken  are  but 
a  few  of  the  many  devotional  ideas  with  which  the  pages  of 
the  Old  Testament  abound,  and  which  from  the  freshness, 
the  force,  and  the  reality,  with  which  they  are  there  set 
forth,  must  ensure  for  it  undying  vitality,  and  ever  prevent 
it  from  becoming  obsolete,  or  devoid  of  worth. 

1  Deut.  xii.   12,  18,  xvi.    11,   xxvii,  7   (cf.   xii.  7,   xiv.    26,   xvi.    14, 
XX vi.  11):  conip.  Lev.  xxiii.  40, 

2  Jobxiii.  16,  xxvii.  10,  Ps.  V.  7  ("  can  "  or  "do  "  :  not  "will"). 

3  Is.  Ixii.  10,  &c.  ;  Is.  Iviii.  14,  Job  xxii.  26,  xxvii.  10,  Ps.  xxxvii.  4. 


VALUE   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  xlx 

I  hold,  then,  that  the  moral  and  devotional  value  of  the 
Old  Testament — as  indeed  its  religious  value  generally — is 
unafifected  by  critical  questions  respecting  the  authorship  or 
date  of  its  various  parts.  And  if,  in  conclusion,  I  were  to  sum 
up  briefly  the  grounds  on  which  the  moral  and  devotional 
value  of  the  Old  Testament  seems  to  me  to  be  perman- 
ently assured,  I  should  say  that  these  were  partly  its  fine 
literary  form,  partly  the  great  variety  of  mode  and  occasion 
by  which  the  creed  and  practice  of  its  best  men  are  exempli- 
fied, partly  the  intensity  of  spirit  by  which  its  teaching  is 
penetrated  and  sustained.  As  a  purely  literary  work,  the 
Old  Testament  combines  the  rare  merits  of  including  passages 
of  high  moral  and  spiritual  worth,  at  once  attractive  and 
intelligible  to  the  simplest  capacities,  and  of  being  written 
in  a  style  which  must  ever  command  the  respect  and 
appreciation  of  the  most  cultured.  Then,  secondly,  the 
truths  which  it  contains  are  not  presented  in  an  abstract 
garb,  as  a  collection  of  moral  or  religious  maxims  to  be 
apprehended  merely  by  the  intellect ;  they  are  presented 
under  every  variety  of  circumstance  and  form,  as  part  of  the 
actual  life,  and  practice,  and  belief,  of  men  representing  a 
nation  through  the  entire  course  of  its  chequered  history. 
And  they  are  presented,  lastly,  with  a  spirituality  of  motive, 
an  intensity  of  conviction,  a  warmth  and  inwardness  of 
feeling,  and  a  singleness  of  aim,  which  cannot  but  impress 
deeply  every  reader,  and  evoke  corresponding  impulses  in 
his  own  breast.  Upon  these  grounds,  it  seems  to  me  that 
so  long  as  human  nature  continues,  endowed  intellectually 
as  it  now^  is,  the  Old  Testament  must  remain  an  ever- 
fresh  fountain-head  of  living  truth,  able  to  invigorate  and 
restore,  to  purify  and  refine,  to  ennoble  and  enrich,  the 
moral  and  spiritual  being  of  man. 


SERMON    I.i 

EVOLUTION  COMPATIBLE    WITH  FAITH. 

Gen.  ii.  7  :  "And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life  ;  and 
man  became  a  living  soul." 

These  words  are  taken  from  the  opening  section  of 
the  second  of  the  two  main  documents,  which  have 
been  interwoven  with  rare  skill  in  our  present  Penta- 
teuch, and  which  can  be  traced  side  by  side  to  the 
close  of  the  Book  of  Joshua.  Both  in  scope  and  style, 
the  two  narratives  differ  widely  ;  the  one  deals  with 
the  antiquities  of  the  Jewish  nation,  the  origin  of  its 
sacred  law,  and  its  ceremonial  observances,  the  other 
consists  of  a  series  of  cameos  of  the  patriarchal  and 
Mosaic  age,  each  exhibiting  with  singular  perfection 
of  literary  form  some  theological  or  ethical  truth. 
The  portion  which  extends  from  the  fourth  verse  of 
the  second  chapter  to  the  close  of  the  third  chapter, 
is  plainly  a  continuous  whole,  which  appropriately 
follows  the  preceding  section,  because  while  that  deals 
with  creation  as  a  whole,  this  places  in  the  forefront 
the  formation  of  man,  and  by  detailing  the  story  of 

1  Preached  at  St.  Mary's,  Oxford,  before  the  University,  on 
Sunday,  Oct.  21,  1883. 

B 


2  SERMON    I. 

the  Fall  forms  the  introduction  to  the  subsequent 
history.  The  narrative,  while  not  discrepant  theologi- 
cally from  chapter  i.,  is  independent  of  it,  and  pre- 
supposes (as  it  would  seem)  a  different  view  of  the 
order  of  creation.  Consider  its  opening  words  : — 
"  No  plant  in  the  field  was  yet  in  the  earth,  and  no 
herb  of  the  field  had  yet  sprung  up  ;  "  (and  the  reason 
follows)  "  for  Jehovah  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain 
upon  the  earth,  and  there  was  no  man  to  till  the 
ground."  The  surface  of  the  earth  is  represented  as 
desolate  and  bare  :  it  is  watered  only  by  a  mist. 
Upon  the  earth,  thus  bare,  man  is  placed  ;  a  garden 
is  prepared  for  his  reception,  and  provided  with  trees 
necessary  for  his  support.  As  yet  he  is  alone  in  the 
world  ;  and  if  the  Hebrew  of  verse  19  is  to  be  under- 
stood in  its  ordinary  and  natural  sense,  it  implies  that 
the  animals  were  still  non-existent — "  And  Jehovah 
God  proceeded  to  fonn^  out  of  the  ground  every  beast 
of  the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  heaven  ;  and 
brought  them  unto  the  man  to  see  what  he  would  call 
them."  They  pass  before  him  in  order,  but  amongst 
them  all  there  is  found  no  help  "  meet  for  him  " — i.e. 
no  help,  corresponding,  or  adapted  to  him — in  a  single 
word,  no  consort.  Only  an  origin  most  closely  asso- 
ciated with  himself  can  provide  man  with  the  social 
and  intellectual  complement  which  his  nature  lacks  : 
he  recognizes  woman's  equality  with  himself,  and  the 
work  of  creation  is  complete.     The  third  chapter  de- 

1  Such  is  the  force  of  the  Hebrew  tense  employed.     Comjp. 
the  writer's  Hebrew  Tenses,  §  76  Obs.  (ed.  3,  1892,  p.  88). 


EVOLUTION   COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  3 

scribes  how  man's  happiness  was  lost,  and  the  contest 
with  evil  was  begun,  while  intimating  for  him,  in  dark 
and  enigmatic  terms,  the  prospect  of  victory  in  the  end. 
How  is  this  striking  and  impressive  narrative  to  be 
viewed  ?  Have  we  before  us  history,  or  what,  for  want 
of  a  better  word,  may  be  described  as  symbol  or 
allegory  ?  Have  we  before  us  a  record  of  incidents 
occurring  literally  as  they  are  related,  or  the  embodi- 
ment, in  a  concrete,  material  dress,  of  theological 
verities,  whose  truth  is  to  be  sought  in  their  substance, 
not  in  the  form  in  which  they  are  invested  ?  There 
are  more  reasons  than  one  which  force  this  question 
upon  us.  Firstly,  as  we  have  seen,  the  narrative  in 
the  second  chapter  appears  to  be,  not  merely  an  ex- 
pansion, or  development,  of  that  in  the  first  chapter, 
but  to  deviate  from  it  in  detail.  And  secondly,  the 
Hebrew  records,  when  studied  by  the  side  of  those 
belonging  to  other  ancient  nations,  are  seen  to  exhibit 
features  which  the  current  interpretation  seems  not 
sufficiently  to  explain ;  while  recent  years  have  shown 
that  the  Hebrew  people  were  accessible  to  influences 
formerly  unsuspected.  It  is  now  known,  for  instance, 
how  wide  was  the  diffusion  of  influences  having  their 
home  in  Babylonia  ;  and  there  are  features  in  these 
chapters  of  Genesis  which  (though,  doubtless,  not 
adequate  to  a  demonstration)  awaken  in  many  minds 
a  strong  impression  that  some  of  their  details  are 
derived  from  that  quarter.  Is  the  admission  of  such 
a  fact  consistent  with  a  belief  in  their  inspiration  .-* 
Or,  should  it  prove  to  be  v/ell-founded,  does  it  deprive 


4  SERMON    I. 

the  narrative  of  all  value  and  authorit}^  ?  Many  ex- 
positors have  viewed  the  third  chapter  as  allegorical  ; 
and  when  we  consider  the  close  connection  subsisting 
between  that  chapter  and  the  second,  and  the  strong 
anthropomorphic  colouring  which  pervades  them  both, 
it  is  not,  it  may  be  pleaded,  unreasonable  to  interpret 
the  former  chapter  as  well  upon  the  same  principle. 
We  can,  at  least,  no  longer  shrink  from  estimating  it 
afresh  in  the  new  light  now^  thrown  upon  it ;  and  if  we 
have  the  interests  of  theology  at  heart,  it  will  be  our 
endeavour  to  show  that  a  modified  view  of  it  is  not 
irreconcilable  with  the  just  claims  of  our  faith. 

Is  a  literal  history,  then,  the  only  form  of  narrative 
consonant  with  truth  ?  Probably  only  custom  has 
induced  the  common  supposition  that  it  is.  And  yet 
the  Bible,  it  is  obvious,  avails  itself,  with  the  utmost 
freedom,  of  varieties  of  literary  form.  Poetry  and 
parable,  oratory  and  allegory,  argument  and  feeling, 
appear  there,  as  they  appear  in  the  literature  of  other 
civilized  nations ;  the  difference  is  that  they  are  made, 
in  a  singular  degree,  the  expression  of  the  religious 
spirit,  and  the  vehicle  of  religious  truth.  Human 
genius,  not  suppressed  but  quickened,  not  diverted 
from  its  natural  lines  of  development,  but  directed 
in  them,  appears  everywhere  as  the  organ  of  the 
Divine  Spirit.  Should  we  not,  then,  by  analogy 
expect  to  find  the  historians  dealing  similarly,  not 
contenting  themselves  with  a  realistic  treatment  of 
history,  but  handling  their  subject,  when  its  nature 
permitted  it,  with  independence,  and  accommodating 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  5 

it  to  the  purpose  which  they  had  in  view  ?  It  is 
remarkable  what  a  subordinate  place  the  plain, 
unadorned  chronicle  holds  in  the  Old  Testament.  If 
now  it  had  been  the  object  of  the  inspired  writer  to 
construct  a  picture  of  the  beginnings  of  history,  to 
which  no  traditions  reached  back,  from  which  no 
records  were  handed  down,  and  which  is  introduced, 
be  it  remembered,  by  no  formula  implying  that  it  is 
an  exph'cit  revelation,  what  method  can  we  suppose 
him  to  have  followed,  and  what  would  be  in  harmony 
with  his  procedure  elsewhere.'*  The  Biblical  historians, 
it  is  plain,  were  dependent  for  their  materials  upon 
ordinary  human  sources;  their  inspiration  shows  itself 
in  the  application  which  they  made  of  them,  and  the 
spirit  with  which  they  infused  them.  If  the  author 
of  this  part  of  Genesis  had  sought  to  give  expression 
to  certain  truths  respecting  the  nature  of  man  and  his 
relation  to  God,  which  he  knew  must  have  had  an 
historical  origin  in  the  past,  though  the  origin  itself 
was  concealed  from  him,  what  more  appropriate 
method  could  he  have  adopted  than  that  of  throw- 
ing them  into  a  quasi-historical  form,  selecting  his 
materials  from  the  sources  available  to  him,  and 
disposing  them  according  to  the  principles  which 
governed  his  entire  work  ?  If  some  of  these  materials 
were  borrowed  from  an  Assyrian  or  Babylonian 
source,  others  derived  from  the  author's  own  reflec- 
tion, only  a  limited  and  superficial  view  of  the 
functions  of  the  Biblical  writers  would  conclude  that 
the   value    or    authority    of  his    work    was    thereby 


6  SERMON    I. 

impaired  ;  its  authority  depends  upon  the  place  it 
occupies  in  the  entire  canon,  its  value  upon  the  theo- 
logical truths  which  it  embodies,  and  which  exhypothesi 
are  intact.  And  the  test  of  the  writer's  inspiration  is 
to  be  found  in  the  depth  and  spirituality  of  his 
thoughts,  and  in  the  insight  and  discrimination  \vith 
which,  if  such  were  actually  his  method,  he  wove  his 
materials  into  a  whole,  adapted  to  take  its  place  in 
the  sacred  canon.  He  did  not,  we  may  suppose,  if 
this  view  be  correct,  receive  a  revelation  respecting 
events  long  past ;  but  a  Divine  intuition  guided  his 
thoughts,  and  enabled  him  to  construct  a  picture, 
true  ideally,  and  witnessing  unmistakably  to  his  In- 
spiration, of  the  beginnings  of  man  upon  earth.  But 
whatever  its  resemblance  to  Babylonian  and  other 
myths,  be  it  greater  or  less  than  has  been  supposed, 
we  may  be  sure  that  it  concerns  only  the  external 
dress.  The  more  minutely  Israelitish  institutions  and 
ideas  are  compared  with  those  of  their  neighbours, 
the  more  conspicuous,  among  much  that  is  similar, 
are  the  diversities,  and  the  more  plainly  do  we 
perceive  that  purer  light  v/hich  shone  in  their  midst. 
This  difference,  fundamental  though  it  is,  does  not 
exclude  the  use  of  forms  of  narrativ^e  analogous  to, 
or  even  adapted  from,  those  current  in  other  countries  ; 
it  only  demands  that,  if  adapted,  they  should  be  made 
subservient  to  truth,  and  be  animated  with  the  spirit  of 
revelation.^   And  this,  as  we  shall  see,  is  here  the  case. 

1  Comp.  Lenormant,  Les  Origities  de  rHistoire,  i.,  pp.  xviii, 
xix,  106-7  (ed.  1880)  :  ii.,  pp.  263-269  (1882). 


EVOLUTION   COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  / 

Let  us,  however,  return  to  the  text  and  inquire 
what  it  teaches  us.  Probably  many  readers  suppose 
the  significant  term  to  be  the  expression  living  soul. 
This,  however,  is  incorrect  ;  for  the  Hebrew  idiom 
uses  soul  more  widely  than  we  do,  and  applies  it  to 
any  form  of  sentient  life.  In  the  first  chapter,  the 
same  expression  is  used  of  the  lowly  organisms  which 
move  in  the  waters,  and  is  rendered  living  creature} 
In  the  verse  before  us,  it  means,  then,  that  man  be- 
came a  living  creature;  implying,  indeed,  that  he  was 
possessed  of  his  proper  personality,  but  without  de- 
fining its  nature,  or  connoting  any  distinctive  charac- 
teristic. Nor  does  the  stress  lie  in  the  phrase,  breath 
of  life ;  this  cannot  differ  essentially  from  the  spirit 
of  life ^  or  the  breath  of  the  spirit  of  life  which,  in  the 
seventh  chapter,^  appears  as  an  attribute  of  animals 
in  general.  Does  the  author,  then,  recognize  no 
pre-eminence  appertaining  to  man  }  The  subsequent 
narrative  excludes  such  a  supposition.  No  sooner 
does  man  find  himself  in  presence  of  the  other  animals 
than  his  superiority  is  at  once  manifest ;  he  evinces 
the  faculty  of  reason  ;  he  gives  names  to  them. 
Clearly  the  stress  lies  on  the  distinction  drawn 
between    man's   corporeal   frame,    and   those   higher 

^  Gen.  i.  20  (lit.  "let  the  waters  swarm  ^ith  swarming  things, 
even  living  souls"),  21  (lit.  "all  the  living  soul  that  creepeth, 
wherewith  the  waters  swarm").  Similarly  Lev.  xi.  10,46,  Ezek. 
xlvii.  9 ;  and  of  terrestrial  animals.  Gen.  i.  24,  30  ("  wherein 
there  is  a  living  soul  ")  ;  ix.  10,  12,  15,  16.  "  Creature," Mhere it 
occurs  in  these  passages,  is  literally  soul. 

^  Verses  15  and  22. 


8  SERMON    I. 

faculties  imparted  by  a  special  act,  symbolized  in  the 
word  "  breathed  " — "  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life."  The  animals  are  formed  otherwise, 
in  laree  and  indiscriminate  masses  :  man  is  formed 
as  an  individual,  with  direct  personal  relations  with 
the  Creator.  The  text  declares  that  a  spirit  sent 
from  God,  and  penetrating  the  material  framework 
of  the  body,  is  both  the  source  of  life,  and  creates  the 
human  personality.  The  unique  nature  of  man  is  its 
essential  teaching. 

But   to  this  view,  we  hear   it   said,  the  facts  are 
altogether  fatal.     Man  did  not  come  into  being  as  a 
special  creation,  and  has  no  such  unique  endowments 
as  are  here   implied.     He   arose  in  accordance  with 
well-defined  laws  of  natural  development  out  of  an- 
thropoid ancestors  ;  and  his  pedigree  is  even  carried 
further  back,  till  its  primitive  source  is  discovered   in 
a  humble  organism  inhabiting  the  deep.     Let  us  not 
recoil   or  lose   our  self-possession  in  face  of  such  a 
contention.     It  is  impossible  for  a  man  of  average 
education  to  open   a   modern   work   on   comparative 
biology  without   being   aware  of  the  flood   of  light 
which  the  conceptions  of  modern  biologists  have  shed 
upon  their  science.     Structures  and  organisms  which 
seemed  to  be  isolated,  are  shown  unexpectedly  to  be 
connected  with  others,  and  in  virtue  of  the  connection 
are  constituted  parts  of  an  intelligible  whole.     And 
though,    from    his    imperfect    acquaintance   with  the 
details,  he  may  be  unable  to  estimate  the  facts  alleged 
at  their  true  worth,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  by 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  9 

the  breadth  and  grandeur  of  the  conception  which 
gives  a  physical  continuity  to  animate  nature,  and 
traces  the  innumerable  living  forms  which  teem  upon 
the  globe,  to  slow  variation  from  a  primitive  stock. 
Gigantic  as  is  the  task  imposed  upon  his  imagination 
of  realizing  the  course  of  development,  it  is  lessened 
by  the  reflection  that  it  has  been  spread  over  an 
inconceivable  duration  of  time  ;  and  apart  from 
difficulties  that  may  present  themselves  from  other 
quarters,  the  theory  is  so  satisfying  to  his  scientific 
instincts,  so  complete  as  a  logical  explanation  of 
what  appeared  inexplicable,  that  he  easily  silences 
the  objections  which  possibly  occur  to  him.  And 
those  who  have  studied  the  subject  intimately  assure 
liim,  with  daily  growing  confidence,  that  he  need 
entertain  no  misgivings  that  the  growth  of  species  by 
a  process  of  slow  development  (through  the  operation 
of  causes  which  it  is  unnecessary  now  to  dwell  upon)^ 
is  an  established  fact.  What  position  is  the  theo- 
logian here  to  assume  ^  Is  he  to  pass  judgment 
upon  the  theory  as  not pi'oven  ?  Is  he  to  point  to  the 
imperfections  in  the  evidence,  or  to  the  assumptions 
which  in  his  eyes  appear  unwarrantable .?  If  he  does 
so,  he  is  in  danger  of  not  being  listened  to.  In  the 
first  place,  he  is  not  conversant  with  the  details  ; 
hence,  the  evidence  upon  which  the  theory  is  based 
docs  not  come  before  him  in  its  full  cogency.  The 
theory  has,    moreover,   an    intrinsic   plausibility  and 

^  But  see  J.  B.  Mozley,  Essays  Historical  and  Tlicotogicat,  ii., 
pp.  399-402. 


lO  SERMON    I. 

reasonableness  sufficient  to  compensate  for  some 
admitted  deficiencies  in  its  proof.  And,  secondly,  he 
will  lay  himself  open  to  the  suspicion  that  he  is 
opposing  it  at  bottom,  not  upon  logical  or  scientific 
grounds,  but  upon  grounds  of  theology,  and  if 
this  be  the  case,  the  contest  upon  which  he  enters 
is  an  uneven  one  ;  we  may  feel  sure  that,  like 
questions  of  astronomy  or  geology  in  past  days,  the 
question  of  biology  will  be  decided  ultimately  upon 
scientific  grounds,  and  upon  these  alone. 

Let  me  consider  briefly  the  principal  points  at 
which  theology  and  science  come,  or  appear  to  come, 
into  collision. 

I.  Science  disputes  with  great  earnestness  and 
persistency  the  doctrine  of  special  creations.  She 
declares  that  the  evidence  in  favour  of  dev^elopment 
is  incontrovertible,  and  that  the  facts  of  geology 
imply,  on  the  assumption  that  species  were  created 
separately,  an  arbitrary  method  of  procedure,  devoid 
of  principle  or  rule.^  It  must  be  conceded  that  the 
theory  of  special  creations  exempts  the  origin  of 
species  from  the  operation  of  natural  law.  It  can 
cause  no  surprise  that  science  opposes  this  limitation 
of  her  prerogative,  and  resents  the  prohibition  of 
speculation  upon  matters  which  lie  evidently  within 
her  legitimate  domain.  I  cannot  think  that  theology 
has  here  a  right  to  interfere.  The  issue  is  not  whether 
the  growth  of  species  by  the  operation  of  natural 
processes  be  accepted  as  a  fact  or  not ;  not  whether 
^  T.  H.  Huxley,  Lay  Scnnons,  pp.  280-3  (ed.  1874). 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  II 

you  or  I  are  personally  convinced  of  its  truth  ;  but 
whether,  as  theologians,  we  can  demur  to  it.  The 
two  issues  are  sometimes  confused  ;  but  it  is  of  the 
first  importance  to  keep  them  distinct.  The  theory, 
thus  far,  affirms  nothing  as  to  the  origin  of  life,  or 
as  to  the  power  by  which  its  development  may  be 
guided  ;  it  affirms  merely  that  it  has  developed  ac- 
cording to  physical  laws,  of  the  working  and  nature 
of  which  it  declares  itself  to  be  cognizant.  There 
is  nothing  here  for  theology  to  shrink  from.  Or  is 
such  a  theory  to  be  met  by  ,'an  appeal  to  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  ?  It  appears  to  be  certain  that 
the  progression  laid  down  in  that  chapter  is  at 
variance,  in  some  particulars,  not  with  the  hypotheses 
of  biologists,  but  with  the  facts  of  palaeontology  ;  and 
this  circumstance  is  an  indication  that  to  use  it  for 
that  purpose  is  to  mistake  its  import,  and  to  mis- 
understand its  position  in  the  Old  Testament  Canon. 
The  object  of  that  chapter  is  not  to  give  an  authori- 
tative record  of  the  history  of  the  globe,  but  to  show, 
by  a  series  of  representative  pictures,  that  alike  in  its 
origin  and  in  the  stages  through  which  it  has  passed  it 
has  been  dependent  upon  the  presence,  and  has  given 
effect  to  the  purposes,  of  Almighty  God.^  Science, 
as  such,  cannot  deny  this  ;  she  only  says,  and  says 
quite  truly,  that  it  is  a  question  with  which  she  is 
not  concerned.  But  the  theologian,  instead  of 
cavilling  at  the  theory,  ought  rather  to  be  grateful  to 
science  for  having  enabled  him  to  fill  in  the  outline 

^  See  more  fully  below,  Sermon  vii. 


12  SERMON   I. 

sketched  in  Genesis  with  such  glorious  colours,  and 
for  having  opened  his  mind  to  comprehend  the 
magnificent  scheme  of  continuity  which  dominates 
nature,  which  binds  together  with  this  earth  the 
remotest  heavens,  and  which  it  has  been  the  labour 
of  untold  ages  even  partially  to  unfold.  Or  has  he 
forgotten  the  memorable  words  by  which,  with  almost 
prophetic  intuition,  his  own  revered  teacher  solved  in 
anticipation  the  difficulty  which  future  years  would 
bring :  "  Men  are  impatient  and  for  precipitating 
things,  but  the  Author  of  nature  appears  deliberate 
throughout  His  operations,  accomplishing  His  natural 
ends  by  slow  successive  steps  "  ?  ^ 

2.  Let  me  pass  to  a  second  question.  The  quarrel 
with  final  causes  is  an  old  one  ;  and  the  sound  of 
strife  has  not  ceased  yet.  Doubtless,  Bacon  was 
right ;  doubtless,  the  final  cause  has  been  prematurely 
and  superficially  resorted  to,  to  the  injury  of  true 
science  ;  doubtless,  there  is  ground  for  the  bitterness 
of  spirit  with  which,  in  the  books  of  some  modern 
physicists,  the  subject  Is  alluded  to.  The  explan- 
ation of  an  organ  or  structure  as  being  designed  to 
fulfil  some  function,  is  discarded  ;  the  organ  has  not 
been  designed  in  order  to  perform  its  function  ;  it 
owes  its  existence  to  the  fact  that  it  has  performed 
its  function,  and  performed  it  well,  in  the  past ;  a 
useful  variation  has  survived,  and  been  improved ; 
others,  which  proved  themselves  useless,  perished. 
The  explanation  by  mechanical  or  physical  causes  Is, 
^  Butler,  Analogy,  Part  II.,  chap.  iv.  (towards  the  end). 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH    FAITH.  1 3 

therefore,  it  is  urged,  sufficient.     No  room  or  need  is 
left   for  the  final    cause.     And  some  satisfaction    is 
evinced    in    pointing    to   structures,    which    are    not 
frequent  in  nature,  useless,  or  worse  than  useless,  to 
their  possessors.     The  examples  are  grouped  under 
a    special    rubric,   bearing   the   significant    name    of 
dysteleology.      But    again,  it  must   be  clearly  under- 
stood what  the  issue  is.     Theology  is  not  concerned 
with   the  explanation  of  particular  organs  or  struc- 
tures :  all  that  she  desires  to  know  is,  whether  their 
explanation  collectively^   whether   the  explanation  of 
the   totality  of  phenomena  constituting   the  organic 
world,  by  means  of  physical  or  mechanical   laws,  is 
incompatible  with  the  belief  in  a  presiding  purpose. 
Rudimentary    organs,    she   declares,  do    not   trouble 
her ;  she  is  aware  that  God  works  by  general  laws, 
which  may  be  expected  sometimes  to  result  in  such 
phenomena.     She  does  not  seek  to  discover  directly 
the  purpose  of  each   structure,  but  she  has   a  behef 
that    nature,  as   a   whole,  is    the    embodiment   of  a 
purpose.     Is   she    at    liberty   to    retain    this    belief.'* 
She    is  willing   to  concede  that   the    explanation  of 
nature  by  mechanical  principles  (so  far  as  it  b.as  been 
carried)  docs  not  necessitate  that  belief;  but  are  these 
principles  compatible  with  it  ?     Do  they  exclude  it  1 
It  is  said,  for  instance,^  that  "just  the  most  difficult 
problems,  which  once  teleology  alone  seemed  capable 
of  solving,  arc  those  wdiich   have    now  been   solved 
mechanically  by  the  theory  of  descent.     Everywhere 
^  Haeckel,  Evolution  0/  Ma?t^  i.,  p.  16. 


14  SERMON   I. 

we  are  enabled  to  subitltute  unconscious  causes 
acting  from  necessity,  for  conscious  causes,  involving 
a  purpose."  The  antithesis,  thus  crudely  stated, 
is  an  unreal  one  ;  but  let  that  pass.  We  may  be 
enabled  to  make  this  substitution  ;  the  question 
which  interests  us  is,  Are  we  obliged  ?  It  nowhere 
appears  that  we  are.  Men  of  science  are  jealous  of 
the  introduction  of  the  idea  of  the  final  cause  at 
particular  points  in  the  organic  series.  They  think, 
and  justly,  that  to  admit  it  is  to  abnegate  one  of  their 
most  valued  rights  ;  but  to  those  who,  for  reasons 
not  within  the  cognizance  of  science,  choose  to  view 
the  entire  series  as  the  manifestation  of  a  purpose, 
they  have  nothing  to  oppose.^  As  before,  they  may 
personally  disbelieve  it,  but  all  that  they  can  logically 
object  is,  that  the  subject  lies  beyond  their  province, 
and  that,  as  students  of  science,  they  profess  no 
opinion  upon  it.  It  is  tlie  vainest  and  shallowest  of 
illusions  to  imagine  that  by  discovering  causality, 
v/e  are  disowning  purpose,  or  displacing  mind.  We 
are  but  disclosing  the  methods  through  which  mind 
works,  and  purpose  is  displayed.^  There  is,  of  course, 
a  larger  question,  whether,  namely,  the  mechanical 
explanation  of  the  facts  of  organic  nature  has  left 
intact  the  proof,  drawn  therefrom,  of  the  existence  of 
a  Designer  ;  but  with  this  question,  though  much 
might  be  said  upon  it,  I  am  not  concerned  to-day. 

^  Huxley,  Critiques  and  Addresses  (1883),  p.  307. 

-  Sec  J.  Maitineau,  "^Modern  Materialism,  its  Attitude  towards 
Theology,"  in  the  Conteinporaiy  Rcviezu,  xxvii.,  p.  542,  reprinted 
in  Essays^  Keviews^  and  Addresses  (1891),  vol.  iv.  p.  257. 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  I  5 

Here  also,  then,  if  we  rightly  define  the  lines  of 
demarcation,  there  is  no  real  antagonism  between 
theology  and  science  :  on  the  contrary,  the  discovery 
of  the  physical  cause  is  essential,  unless  our  idea  of 
the  final  cause  is  to  be  an  empty  one,  and  its  use  a 
cloalc  for  ignorance. 

3.  The  issue  becomes  a  graver  one  when  the  theory 
is  applied  to  man.  Nevertheless,  it  is  argued,  the 
facts  are  so  strong,  that  it  is  impossible  to  exclude 
him  from  its  operation  :  he  is  but  the  last  and  highest 
stage  in  the  long  evolutionary  series  ;^  nor,  it  is  added, 
do  his  intellectual  faculties  differ,  except  in  degree, 
from  those  of  the  brute  creation.^  The  latter  asser- 
tion need  not  now  detain  fus  :  the  premises  upon 
which  it  depends  are  not,  properly  speaking,  data 
of  science  ;  and  philosophy  unconditionally  refuses 
its  assent.-^  The  first  assertion,  understood  strictly, 
affirm.s  no  more  than  that  man's  bodily  frame  has 
been  developed  in  the  manner  described  ;  only  in  his 
bodily  frame  are  the  analogies  detected  which  de- 
cisively connect  him  with  other  creatures,  and  only 
this  is  the  subject  of  scientific  observation.  Individual 
men  of  science  sometimes  deny  to  him  the  existence 

1  Huxley,  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  p.  108  ;  Hacckel,  History 
of  Creation,  ii.,  p.  360  f. 

2  Lay  Sermons,  p.  339  ;  Haeckel,  Generate  Mofphologie,  ii ,  p. 
430  f. 

"^Edinburgh  Review,  April  1883,  pp.  452-7— a  masterly 
criticism,  in  an  essay  entitled  ''  Modern  Ethics,''  since  owned 
by  W.  L.  Courtney,  and  reprinted  by  him  in  Constructive  Etl lies 
(1886)  ;  see  pp.  270-377. 


l6  SERMON    I. 

of  a  soul ;  but,  when  pressed,  they  commonly  allow 
their  meaning  to  be  that  they  can  find  no  evidence 
of  a  soul,  that  their  methods  of  inquiry  do  not  lead 
them  to  it ;  that  its  existence  is  no  scientific  pos- 
tulate.^ This,  however,  is  something  very  different 
from  the  assertion  that  science  leaves  no  room  for  it, 
and  is,  indeed,  so  obvious  as  to  be  scarcely  better 
than  a  truism. 

Does  it  seem  possible  that  we  can,  as  theologians, 
accept  this  theory  of  the  origin  of  our  race  ?  There 
might  be  no  conclusive  objection  against  accepting 
it  as  an  explanation  of  man's  bodily  frame ;  -  but  can 
we  separate  the  material  organism  from  the  im- 
material soul  ?  Or  will  the  reality  and  independence 
of  the  latter,  which  is  affirmed  (it  is  important  to 
remember)  not  by  theology  only,  but  by  the  impartial 
judgment  of  philosophy,  be  prejudiced  by  the  ad- 
mission ?  We  should  be  better  able  to  answer  these 
questions,  were  we  more  fully  acquainted  than  we  are 
with  the  nature  of  the  immaterial  principle  in  man,  of 
that  which  we  recognize  in  ourselves  as  the  seat  of 
consciousness,  as  the  feeling  and  thinking  self.  Alas  ! 
we  can  discover  and  analyse  the  laws  by  which  its 
acts  and  functions  are  regulated  ;  we  can  trace,  in  a 
thousand  instances,  its  wonderful  correlation  with  the 
structure  of  the  brain  ;  but  of  its  origin  or  nature  we 

^  Comp.  Bishop  Cotterill,  Docs  Science  aid  Faith?  (1883),  pp. 
158,  195  bottom,  199. 

2  Comp.  the  citation  in  Drummond,  Nat  n'al  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  Worlds  p.  225. 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH    FAITH.  1 7 

can  add    nothing  to  what    the   text    declares,  "  And 
Jehovah  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul."     The  question 
which  w^as  asked    by  Lucretius,  Nata  sit   an  contra 
nascentibus  insinnetui%  was  left  unanswered  by  Augus- 
tine ;   and    remains   unanswered    still.     We  can  only 
say  that  it  has  pleased  Almighty  God   by  some  law, 
hitherto  undiscovered  and  perhaps  undiscoverable,  to 
unite,  under  certain  conditions,  a  material  organism 
with  an  immaterial    soul.     We  are  in  presence  of  a 
mystery  w^hich  defies  explanation  at  the  hand  of  man, 
which  says,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou  come,  and  no  further." 
We  arrive  at  something  super-sensual,  at  something 
whi'^h    imagination    cannot    figure,  nor   reason    com- 
prehend, something  which  asserts  its  presence  while 
it  eludes  our  grasp,  and  which,  if  we  seek  relief  from 
our    perplexity   by   dein'ing   its    existence,    rises    up 
against  us  and  overwhelms  us  with  confusion  of  face. 
Nevertheless,  a    recognition   of  this    fact    in    the  in- 
dividual may  not  be  without  its  service  when  we  pass 
to  the  wider  problem  presented  by  the  race.     Let  it 
be   admitted    that    physical    causes    explain    in    the 
individual  the  growth  of  his  bodily  frame ;  they  throw 
no  light  on  the  origin  of  the  soul.     What  if  the  case 
should  be  similar  when  the  first  man  appeared  upon 
this  earth  .?     What  if,  with  the  race  then,  as  with  the 
individual  now.  Almighty  God  ordained  the  completion 
of  the  bodily  structure  by  the  same  laws  which  he 
has  imposed  upon  all    organic  nature,  until   the  un- 
known conditions  were  satisfied,  in  virtue  of   which 

C 


l8  SERMON    I. 

the  dawning  intelligence  was  manifested  in  it  ?  In 
this  case  what  science  postulates  is  granted.  All 
that  an  observer,  supposed  to  be  present,  would  have 
traced,  would  be  in  accordance  with  those  laws,  whose 
uniform  and  unvarying  operation  science  everywhere 
discerns.  Only  the  super-sensual  fact,  over  which 
she  asserts  no  rights,  would  have  been  beyond  his 
reach. 

For,  if  we  think  to  expel  the  super-sensual  from 
nature,  we  embark  upon  a  hopeless  task.  There  are 
phenomena  which  will  not  be  explained  by  the 
premises  of  materialism.  There  are  facts  which 
cannot  by  any  intelligible  process  of  thought  be  con- 
nected with  the  data  of  sense.  There  is,  within  each 
one  of  us,  a  permanent  and  undying  witness  to  the 
reality  of  the  super-sensual — the  fact  of  conscious- 
ness. While  human  consciousness  survives,  philosophy 
has  an  unassailable  basis  on  which  to  assert  for  mind, 
whencesoever  derived,  its  independence  and  suprem- 
acy. Here  is  a  fact  which  no  theory  of  the  origin 
of  human  consciousness  can  get  rid  of,  and  which  any 
theory  having  a  claim  to  validity  must  preserve  intact. 

Is  such  a  view  of  the  union  of  soul  and  body  un- 
scientific }  Does  it  introduce  a  secret  flaw  into  the 
symmetry  of  nature,  and  break  down  the  hardly-won 
conception  of  her  unity  ?  It  can  do  so  in  the  eyes 
of  those  alone  who,  implicitly  if  not  ostensibly,  hold 
that  the  senses  are  the  measure  of  reality.  Strange 
illusion  !  We  may  ascertain  the  laws  and  conditions 
under  which  one  body  acts   upon  another ;  we   may 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH    FAITH.  1 9 

watch,  under  a  microscope,  the  change  and  growth 
of  a  living  organism  ;  but  how  it  is  at  all,  that  one 
material  particle  is  influenced  by  another,  or  what 
the  hidden  agency  is,  which  causes  the  organism  to 
develop,  is  beyond  our  grasp.^  The  widest  observa- 
tion brings  the  mystery  no  nearer  :  we  understand 
the  surface  better  ;  we  do  not  penetrate  beneath  it. 
The  admission  that  this  is  the  case  is  often  made 
verbally  ;  ^  but  it  carries  with  it  some  important 
consequences.  It  removes  the  antecedent  objection 
that  there  is  no  mystery  in  nature,  nothing  inscrutable, 
nothing  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  inexplicable. 
If  there  is  one  mystery,  tliere  may  be  more.  If 
comprehension  fails  us  in  one  direction,  it  may  fail 
us  in  another.  Now,  science  is  satisfied,  if  we  grant 
continuity  in  the  development  of  living  things ;  it 
admits  that  on  the  origin  of  life,  it  has  no  information 
to  offer  ^ — it  only  asks  that,  the  germs  being  given, 
we  should  hand  over  their  development  to  the  opera- 
tion of  fixed  laws.  How  these  laws  were  fixed, 
whence  matter  acquired  the  properties  with  which, 
as  we  know  it,  it  is  invested,  it  does  not  presume  to 
say ;  it  leaves  us  free  to  make  what  assumptions  we 
choose,  provided  we  do  not  claim  cither  to  derive 
them  from  science,  or  to  impose  them  upon  it.  Here 
then  we  leave  science  :  it  is  admitted  on  both  sides, 
that   science,    as    such,   teaches    nothing    respecting 

1  Lotze,  Mikrokosnius,  i.,  p.  310  f. 

2  Haeckel,    Generate  Mo7'phologie,  i.,  p.    105  ;   Huxley,  Lay 
Sermons^  p.  341,  Critiques  and  Addresses^  p.  285. 

2  Encyctopcsdia  Britannica^  9th  ed,,  vol.  viii.  (1878),  p.  746. 


20  SERMON    I. 

super-sensual  entities,  and  as  such,  therefore,  possesses 
no  knowledc^e  of  God  or  of  the  soul.  If  we  have 
knowledge  of  these  realities,  as  we  believ^e  them  to 
be,  from  other  sources,  we  are  at  liberty  to  make  use 
of  it,  provided  we  in  no  way  infringe  the  continuity 
and  fixity  which  science  so  jealously  guards.  As  we 
are  not  dealing  here  with  what  in  the  technical  sense 
of  the  term  are  described  as  "  miracles,"  we  shall  not 
do  so.  We  are  at  liberty,  then,  to  believe,  for  ex- 
ample, what  is  taught  by  all  deeper  philosophy,  that 
the  world  as  known  can  only  subsist  in  a  mind  that 
thinks  it.  Or,  again,  we  are  at  liberty  to  hold  the 
belief  that  the  personal  Creator  of  the  world  is  also 
its  ever-present  Sustainer,  and  by  means  known  to 
Him,  but  unimaginable  by  us,  ordains  those  effects 
of  which  our  senses  discern  but  the  outside  form. 
This  fact  is  one  which  of  course  no  theist  will  dispute  ; 
I  ha\-e  not  made  use  of  it  before,  because  it  was  not 
required  by  the  argument.  It  lies,  indeed,  outside 
the  scope  of  science,  and  we  freely  admit  that  it 
cannot  be  demonstrated  by  science.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, on  this  account  in  antagonism  to  it  :  for  science 
only  asks  for  fixed  laws  ;  and  it  has  long  been  a 
commonplace  of  theology  that  fixed  laws  are  the 
form  through  which,  as  a  rule,  the  Creator  has  been 
pleased  to  carry  out  His  purposes. 

But  if  we  realize  the  truth  that  Almighty  God  is 
everj^w/iere  presQnt,  everywhere  manifesting  His  power, 
not  merely  on  those  occasions  which  we  distinguish 
as  miraculous,  but  in  the  normal  and  regular  processes 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE  WITH    FAITH.  21 

of  nature,  the  gain  is  great  and  our  view  becomes  at 
once  clearer.  The  fear  is  seen  more  distinctly  to  be 
groundless,  lest  by  conceding  a  scheme  of  evolution 
we  are  prejudicing  the  Divine  supremacy.  We  are 
conceding  merely  a  change  in  the  mode  by  which  it 
is  manifested.  As  regards  the  question  which  here 
concerns  us,  we  are  not  bound  to  maintain  a  particular 
theory.  On  the  one  hand,  if  it  be  true — to  quote  the 
words  of  one  whom  Oxford  has  not  yet  ceased  to 
mourn — if  it  be  true  that  "  countless  generations 
passed,  durhig  which  a  transmitted  organism  was 
progressively  modified  till  an  eternal  consciousness 
could  realize,  or  reproduce  itself  in  it,  then  this  might 
add  to  the  wonder  with  which  the  consideration  of 
what  we  do,  and  are,  must  always  fill  us,  but  it  could 
not  alter  the  results  of  that  consideration."  ^  It  could 
not,  that  is,  alter  the  view  which  we  had  reached, 
upon  independent  grounds,  of  the  nature  of  human 
intelligence.  If,  by  an  act  inscrutable  to  us,  the 
foundations  of  human  personality  were  laid  in  the 
remote  past,  it  would  but  add  one  to  the  many 
mysteries  by  which  our  being  is  surrounded,  it  would 
but  be  a  fresh  illustration  of  the  adorable  wisdom  of 
God.  It  is  not  demanded  of  us  that  we  should 
abandon  what  is  certain  for  the  sake  of  assumed 
inferences  from  that  which  is  uncertain.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  supposing  the  alternative  to  be  a  real 
one,  we   hold    that   intelligence   supervenes    in  each 

^  T.  H.  Green,  P)olcgo}ncna  to  Ethics^  p.  87  f.     Comp.  Lotze, 
U.S.,  i.,  p.  13S  (srded.). 


22  SERMON    I. 

individual  case,  as  it  were  separately  and  from  with- 
out, then  a  recognition  of  the  same  truth  of  God's 
continual  presence  may  help  us  to  understand  how 
this  is  no  arbitrary  interference.  It  ceases  to  be  an 
assumption  void  of  presumption  or  analogy,  that  in 
the  midst  of  the  processes  observable  by  the  senses, 
He  may  manifest  Himself  in  other  ways  not  so 
observable,  and  only  traceable  inferentially.  Mere 
visibility  cannot  surely,  as  appears  sometimes  to  be 
tacitly  assumed,  constitute  the  criterion  of  God's 
operation.  The  operation  of  His  power,  we  may 
rest  assured,  is  not  unregulated  by  law,  though  the 
law  which  regulates  it  may  involve  factors  v/hich  our 
faculties  are  not  adequate  to  discover.  It  is  no 
longer,  if  the  familiar  illustration  may  be  permitted, 
a  Deus  ex  macJiind  to  which  we  have  recourse  ;  it  is 
rather,  to  retain  the  metaphor,  a  Dens  in  scend,  whose 
glory,  filling  heaven  and  earth,  bursts  upon  our  opened 
eyes.  To  be  sure,  such  reasonings  will  be  rejected  as 
futile  by  materialism  ;  but  they  come  into  no  collision 
with  science.  Science  does  not  frame  a  theory  of 
the  universe  as  a  whole,  it  deals  only  with  the  laws 
which  govern  the  material  part  of  it :  a  theory  of  the 
whole  must  find  room  for  other  facts,  other  pheno- 
mena, other  laws,  not  less  than  for  those  which  form 
the  subject-matter  of  science. 

Let  theology,  then,  offer  no  hindrance  to  at  least  a 
provisional  acceptance  of  this  theory  of  the  origin  of 
man.  More  than  a  provisional  acceptance  cannot,  I 
venture  to  think,  be  at  present   demanded  of  those 


"J 


who  are  not  experts.  The  admission,  if  made,  will 
not,  after  what  I  have  said,  be  misconstrued.  We 
would  gladly  know  more  respecting  the  influences 
to  which  specifically  man's  origin  is  due,  and  of  his 
condition,  and  thoughts,  when  he  first  awoke  to  self- 
consciousness.  But  science  is  here  silent.  What, 
then,  is  the  relation  of  the  two  records  with  which 
the  Bible  opens,  to  this,  or  other  physical  theories  } 
They  are  not  a  substitute  for  science ;  they  do  not 
speak  where  she  is  silent.  They  do  not  pretend  to 
supersede  science,  or  to  impede  a  sympathetic  interest 
in  her  progress,  and  a  cordial  acceptance  of  her 
discoveries.  They  guide  us  upon  different  principles. 
They  afford  us  certain  clues,  which  without  their  aid 
we  might  not  have  discovered,  and  assuredly  should 
not  have  grasped  so  firmly.  They  recall  to  our  mind 
truths  to  which  science  could  never  lead  us.  Their 
purport  is  theological,  not  historical  ;  hence,  they 
speak  by  pictures  which  are  true  substantially  if  not 
in  detail,  which  appeal  powerfully  to  the  imagination, 
and  impress  themselves  readily  upon  the  memory. 
The  first  record  teaches  us  that  God  is  a  Spiritual 
Being,  prior  to  the  world,  and  independent  of  it,  that 
the  world  arrived  at  the  form  in  which  we  know  it  by 
a  series  of  stages,  each  the  embodiment  of  a  Divine 
purpose,  and  the  whole  the  realization  of  a  Divine 
plan  ;  that  man,  in  particular,  among  the  other 
animals,  is  endowed  with  a  distinctive  pre-eminence, 
signified  by  the  term  "the  image  of  God."  These 
are   fundauieutal    thoughts,     which    science    cannot 


24  SERMON    I. 

dispute,  and  which  experience  testifies.  How  clearly 
and  distinctly  the  narrator  sets  them  before  us  !  Let 
it  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  Babylonian  cosmogony 
to  which  I  alluded/  these  truths  are  entirely  lost  sight 
of,  gods  and  world  being  there  evolved  together,  with 
naive  impartiality,  out  of  the  same  abysmal  chaos.^ 
The  second  record  teaches  us  the  double  nature  of 
man — his  earthly  frame,  and  the  spirit  communicated 
to  him  from  the  Creator,  enabling  him  to  apprehend 
intellectual  and  religious  truth.  It  seizes  a  fact, 
which  may  have  taken  actually  long  ages  to  accom- 
plish, and  represents  it  under  a  forcible,  concrete 
image  which  all  can  understand.  It  tells  us  how  the 
earth  is  fitted  for  his  abode,  and  designed  to  supply 
him  with  maintenance.  It  tells  us  how  he  first  used 
his  reason  by  the  creation  of  language,  distinguishing 
objects  from  one  another,  and  from  himself.  It  tells 
us  how,  by  some  mysterious  process,  which  even 
science  can  scarcely  hope  to  define  with  precision, 
the  bifurcation  of  the  sexes  was  effected,  and  how  the 
difference  between  them  has  a  deep  ethical  and  social 
significance.  It  tells  us,  by  a  dim  allegory,  which 
speaks,  however,  only  too  distinctly  to  every  child  of 
Adam,  how  man  became  conscious  of  a  moral  law, 
and  how  upon  the  first  temptation  he  broke  it. 
These  are  truths  of  man's  natural  life  ;  it  will  be  seen 

^  It  may  be  read  in.Schrader's  Cicneifonn  Inscriptions  of  the 
Old  TestaDicnt  (1883),  on  Gen.  i.  i,  14,  20;  or  in  Records  of  the 
Pasty  second  series,  i.  (188S),  p.  133  ff.  (in  a  different  version, 
p.  149  ff.). 

-  Sec  the  references  >rivcn  boiow  in  the  course  of  Sermon  vii. 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE   WITH   FAITH.  25 

at  once  that  thougli  the  style  of  representation  is 
different,  they  agree  in  conception  with  what  we  read 
in  chapter  i.,  and  are  indeed  mostly  involved  in  the 
gift  or  capacity  there  denoted  by  the  "  image  of  God." 
Here,  then,  is  their  inherent,  inalienable  value — a 
value  which  is  unassailable  by  criticism,  and  which  is 
superior  to  all  questions  of  authorship  or  date.  I  do 
not,  for  example,  seek  to  reconcile  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  with  palaeontology  or  astronomy,  for  it  seems 
to  me  that  in  some  particulars  they  are  not  reconcil- 
able :  but  this  very  fact  teaches  me  a  truer  estimate 
of  its  import  ;  and  I  claim  it  as  the  foundation  of  a 
religious  contemplation  of  nature.  Science  warns  us 
that  we  have  been  wrong  in  insisting  upon  a  strictly 
literal  interpretation  ;  historical  criticism  comes  for- 
ward and  shows  us  how,  without  prejudice  to  theology, 
we  may  abandon  it.^  It  shows  as  how  what  was 
once  treated  as  historical,  may  be  regarded  as  sym- 
bolical ;  and  how,  as  thus  understood,  the  theological 
teaching  of  Genesis  accords  v/ith  what  a  progres- 
sive revelation  might  be  expected,  from  analogy,  to 
contain. 

A  readjustment  of  the  relations  subsisting  between 
theology  on  the  one  hand,  and  criticism  and  science 
on  the  other,  is  beginning  to  be  recognized  as  one  of 
the  pressing  needs  of  the  time.     A  first  step  towards 

^  Comp.  a  Sermon  by  the  Rev.  C.  Gore,  Vice-Principal  of  the 
Theological  College,  Cuddesden  (now  Principal  of  the  Piisey 
House,  Oxford),  printed  in  tlie  Oxyvrd  Ala^azifie,  Nov.  28,  1883, 
p.  419. 


26  SERMON    I. 

this  readjustment  is  a  more  precise  definition  of  the 
border-line  between  them.  And  a  second  step  is  a 
just  recognition  of  the  hmits  at  which  knowledge  fails 
us.  Among  the  conclusions  at  which  criticism  and 
science  claim  to  have  arrived,  are  many  which,  when 
impartially  examined,  are  found  to  have  no  relation 
with  Christian  truth,  and  which,  therefore,  the  Christian 
believer  is  free  to  estimate  upon  their  intrinsic  merits. 
The  antagonism  lies  not  with  the  scientific  fact,  not 
even  with  the  scientific  theory,  but  with  a  philosophic 
creed,  which  forms  no  part  of  them,  is  in  no  way 
involved  in  them,  and  with  which  they  are  temporarily 
associated  only  through  the  prepossessions  of  par- 
ticular advocates.^  In  the  minds  of  many,  by  an 
unfortunate  but  intelligible  confusion,  the  plausibility 
of  the  theory  becomes  evidence  for  the  plausibility  of 
the  creed.  Ought  it  not  to  be  the  aim  of  those  who 
can  see  more  distinctly  to  aid  in  removing  this  con- 
fusion, by  owning  the  theory  while  discarding  the 
creed  ?  Christian  thinkers,  by  too  often  holding 
aloof,  lend  support  to  the  false  identification  of 
scientific  speculation  with  pantheism  or  atheism,  and 
place  in  their  opponents'  hands  a  weapon,  the  strength 
of  which  they  seem  singularly  to  ignore.  But  a 
movement,  full  of  promise  and  hope,  has  shown  itself 
recently  in  a  different  direction.  May  the  Source 
and  Author  of  Truth  not  abandon  the  creatures 
whom  He  has  made  ;  may  He  dispel  from  their  eyes 
the  mists  of  error,  and  bid  the  light  shine  within  their 
'  Comp.  Bishop  Cotterill,  u.s.,  pp.  104,  212. 


EVOLUTION    COMPATIBLE    WITH   FAITH.  2/ 

hearts,  till  they  attain  more  perfectly  the  knowledge 
of  His  ways  !^ 

^  See  now,  further,  in  support  of  the  general  line  taken  in  the 
preceding  Sermon,  the  able  treatment  of  the  same  subject  by  the 
late  Aubrey  L.  Moore  in  Science  and  the  Faith  (1889),  pp.  xi — 
xlvii,  pp.  162-221  (a  reprint  of  three  articles  on  "  Darwinism  and 
the  Christian  Faith,"  published  originally  in  the  Guardian^  Jan. 
and  Feb.  1888),  and  pp.  222-235  ("  Recent  Advances  in  Natural 
Science  in  their  relation  to  the  Christian  Faith,"  a  paper  read 
at  the  Reading  Church  Congress,  Oct.  1883).  See  likewise  A. 
M.  Fairbairn,  '^  Theism  and  Science,"  in  The  City  of  God,  pp. 
35-74  (ed.  ii.,  1886).  And  on  the  early  narratives  of  Genesis 
comp.  Prof.  H.  E.  Ryle  in  the  Expository  Times  (T.  &  T. 
Clark,  Edinburgh),  April,  June,  Sept.,  Dec,  1891,  Feb.  1892. 


SERMON     11} 

ISAIAH'S    VISION. 

Isaiah  vi.  3  :  "  And  one  cried  unto  another,  and  said,  Holy,  Hoi}'-, 
Holy,  is  th3  LORD  of  Hosts  :  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  his 

glory." 

The  chapter  from  which  these  words  are  taken 
forms  the  first  lesson  for  this  morning's  service.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  appropriate  chapter 
for  the  day  on  which  we  celebrate  the  highest 
mystery  of  the  Christian  faith  than  the  one  in  which 
Isaiah,  admitted  in  spirit  behind  the  veil  which  severs 
the  visible  from  the  invisible  world,  describes  in 
dignified  and  impressive  language,  the  vision  pre- 
sented to  his  eyes.  As  in  other  cases,  the  framework 
of  the  vision  is  formed  by  the  objects  with  which  the 
prophet  was  familiar  ;  and  the  vision  is  itself  con- 
ditioned by  his  mental  power  and  spiritual  capacity. 
The  grandeur  and  richness  of  Isaiah's  imagination 
pre-eminently  fits  him  to  be  the  recipient  of  a  vision 
which  transcends  those  of  Amos,  Jeremiah,  or 
Ezekiel,  and  indeed  stands  unique  in  the  Old  Testa- 

^  Preached  in  the  Chapel  of  New  College,  Oxford,  before  the 
University,  on  Trinity  Sunday,  May  31,  1885. 


ISAIAH'S   VISION.  29 

ment.  The  scene,  then,  which  Isaiah  beholds,  is  the 
heavenly  palace  of  Jehovah's  sovereignty,  modelled 
upon,  but  not  a  copy  of,  His  earthly  Temple  at 
Jerusalem  :  "  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne, 
high  and  lifted  up,  and  his  train  filled  the  temple." 
The  comparatively  small  adyton  of  the  Temple  on  Zion 
is  indefinitely  expanded,  the  lofty  throne  takes  the 
place  of  the  mercy-seat,  the  skirts  of  the  royal  mantle, 
falling  in  ample  folds,  fill  the  space  about  and  below 
the  throne,  and  conceal  from  the  beholder,  standing 
beneath,  the  unapproachable  Form  seated  upon  it. 
The  two  colossal  cherubim,  whose  extended  wings 
overshadowed  the  ark  in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  are 
absent,  and  there  appears  instead  a  choir  of  living 
creatures  encircling  the  throne :  "  Seraphim,  stood 
above  him  :  each  one  had  six  wings  ;  with  twain  he 
covered  his  face,  and  with  twain  he  covered  his  feet, 
and  with  tv/ain  he  did  fly."  The  seraphim  are  not 
mentioned  elsewhere,  and  the  origin  and  meaning  of 
the  name  can  only  be  supplied  by  conjecture.  It 
must  suffice  to  say  that  they  appear  here  as  the 
most  exalted  ministers  of  the  Divine  Being,  in  imme- 
diate proximity  to  Himself,  and  give  expression  to 
the  adoration  and  reverence  unceasingly  due  from 
the  highest  of  created  intelligences  to  the  Creator. 
Possessed  apparently  of  human  form,  and  in  an  erect 
posture,  they  form  a  circle — or  perhaps  rather  a 
double  choir — about  the  throne,  each  with  two  of  his 
wings  seeming  to  support  himself  upon  the  air,  with 
two  covering  his  face.  In  reverence,  that  he  might  not 


30  SERMON    II. 

gaze  directly  upon  the  Divine  glory,  and  with  two 
his  own  person,  in  humility,  not  deigning  to  meet 
directly  the  Divine  glance.  Can  the  scene  be  more 
aptly  or  more  worthily  reproduced  than  in  our  own 
poet's  noble  lines  ? — 

"  Fountain  of  light,  thyself  invisible, 
Amidst  the  glorious  brightness  where  thou  sitt'st, 
Throned  inaccessible,  but  when  thou  shad'st 
The  full  blaze  of  thy  beams,  and  through  a  cloud 
Drawn  round  about  thee  like  a  radiant  shrine 
Dark  with  excessive  bright  thy  skirts  appear, 
Yet  dazzle  heaven,  that  brightest  Seraphim 
Approach  not,  but  with  both  wings  veil  their  eyes."  ^ 

Isaiah,  standing  as  it  were  by  the  doorway,  hears  the 
seraphs'  hymn  of  adoration  ;  and  as  the  sound  of  their 
united  voices — such  is  the  force  of  the  expression  in 
verse  4 — reverberated  through  the  vast  expanse 
above,  the  pillars  of  the  door  shook  to  their  found- 
ation, and  the  space  around  was  filled  with  smoke, 
symbolizing,  as  it  would  seem,  the  manifestation  of 
God  in  act  or  word.  Isaiah,  overpowered  for  the 
time  by  the  vision,  as  he  recovers  self-possession,  is 
conscious  only  of  his  unworthiness  to  be  where  he  is. 
Unlike  the  seraphs,  he  is  a  man  of  unclean  lips  :  his 
connection  with  his  nation  cannot  save  him,  for  it  is 
unclean  likewise  :  "  Woe  is  me,"  he  exclaims,  "  I  am 
undone."  But  an  altar  is  there,  with  a  fire  burning 
upon  it,  the  fire,  apparently,  which  as  it  consumes  the 
incense  cast  upon  it,  betokens  the  Divine  acceptance  ; 
and  one  of  the  seraphs,  taking  from  it  a  burning  coal, 
^  Milton,  Paradise  Los/,  iii.  375  ff 


ISAIAHS   VISION.  31 

touches  the  prophet's  h'ps  with  it,  and  pronounces  him 
absolved.  Only  then  is  he  reassured  and  ready,  when 
he  hears  the  invitation,  ''  Who  will  go  for  us  }  "  with 
generous  ardour,  knowing  not  whither  the  call  may 
carry  him,  regardless  of  the  sacrifice  which  it  may 
cost,  to  offer  himself  for  the  work.  It  may  be  re- 
gretted, upon  general  grounds,  that  the  authors  of  our 
Lectionary,  by  omitting  the  three  last  verses  in  the 
narrative,  have  deprived  the  lesson  of  its  true  conclu- 
sion ;  but  the  verse  which  I  have  selected  will  afford 
more  than  sufficient  materials  for  our  purpose  to-day. 
Two  of  the  Divine  attributes  form  the  theme  of  the 
seraphs'  hymn — God's  holiness  as  inherent  in  Himself, 
His  glory  as  manifested  in  the  earth.  Holiness, 
the  first  ^of  these,  denotes  fundamentally  a  state  of 
freedom  from  all  imperfection,  specially  from  all 
moral  imperfection  ;  a  state,  moreover,  realized  with 
such  intensity  as  to  imply  not  only  the  absence  of 
evil,  but  antagonism  to  it.  It  is  more  than  goodness, 
more  than  purity,  more  than  righteousness  :  it  em- 
braces all  these  in  their  ideal  completeness,  but  it 
expresses  besides  the  recoil  from  everything  which 
is  their  opposite.  This  is  the  sense  which  the  word 
bears  throughout  Scripture.  Israel  is  to  be  a  holy 
nation  ;  it  is  separated  from  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth,  in  order  that  it  may  reflect  in  idea  the  same 
ethical  exclusiveness  which  is  inherent  in  its  God.i 
The  "  Holy  One  of  Israel,"  that  fine  designation, 
which  is  first  used  by  Isaiah,  and  was  probably  indeed 
^  Ex.  xix.  6,  Lev  xy.  26,  Deut.  vii.  6,  xxvi.  19. 


32  SERMON    IT. 

framed  by  him  as  the  permanent  embodiment  of  the 
truth  so  vividly  impressed  upon  him  in  this  vision,  is 
a  title  which  would  remind  the  Israelite  as  he  heard  it 
of  this  distinctive  attribute  of  his  God,  and  arouse  him 
to  the  duty  of  aiming  after  holiness  himself.     Holi- 
ness, again,  is  the  attribute  which  in  virtue  of  the  tie 
uniting  Jehovah   and   His   people,  prophets  saw  vin- 
dicated in  their  deliverance  from  tyranny  or  oppres- 
sion :   "  The  Lord  hath  made  bare   his  holy  arm  in 
the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  "  ^  ;   or  "  And  the  heathen 
shall  knovv^  that  I  am  the  LORD,  v/hen  I  shall  show 
myself  holy  -  in  you  before  their  eyes."      And  so  it  is 
to  God's  holiness  that  the  Psalmist,  persecuted  but 
conscious  of  innocence,  who  has  cried  day  and  night 
without  respite,  appeals  :   "  And  thou  art   holy,  who 
inhabitest  the  praises  of  Israel."  ^^     Passages  from  the 
New  Testament  I  need  not  here  quote.     The  seraphs 
celebrate  God  not  as  the  All-righteous,,  not  as  the 
All-powerful,  or   the  All-wise ;    they  celebrate   Him 
under  a  title  which  expresses  H's  essence  more  pro- 
foundly than  an}^  of  these,  and  which  marks  more 
significantly  the  gulf  which  severs  Him  from  all  finite 
beings  :  they  celebrate  Him  as  the  All-holy. 

But  not  only  does  the  seraphic  hymn  celebrate  the 
Divine   nature   in    its    own  transcendent   purity  and 

^  Is.i.  lii.  lo. 

-  Or,  "get  me  holiness  "  (cf.  "get  me  glory,"  Ex.  xiv.  4,  where 
the  conjugation  in  the  Hebrew  is  the  same),  /.  e.  get  myself 
recognized  as  holy.  Comp.  A.  B.  Davidson's  Ezekiel  in  the 
Ca7nbridge  Bible  for  Schools,  pp.  xxxix,  xl,  279. 

'  Ezek.  xxvvi.  23.  ^  Ps,  xxii.  3. 


ISAIAH'S  VISION.  33 

perfection  :  it  celebrates  it  as  it  is  manifested  in  the 
material  world — "  The  fulness  of  the  whole  earth  is 
his  glory."  By  "  glory  "  we  mean  the  outward  show 
or  state  attendant  upon  dignity  or  rank  :  the  glory, 
then,  of  which  Isaiah  speaks,  is  the  outward  expression 
of  the  Divine  nature  :  pictured  as  visible  splendour 
it  may  impress  the  eye  of  flesh  ;  but  any  other 
worthy  manifestation  of  the  Being  of  God  may  be  not 
less  truly  termed  His  glory.  It  is  more  than  the 
particular  attribute  of  power  or  wisdom ;  it  is  the 
entire  fulness  of  the  Godhead,  visible  to  the  eye  of 
faith,  if  not  to  the  eye  of  sense,  in  the  concrete  works  of 
nature,  arresting  the  spectator  and  claiming  from  him 
the  tribute  of  praise  and  homage.  It  is  that  which 
in  giant  strokes  is  imprinted  upon  the  mechanism  of 
the  heavens,  and  which,  in  the  bold  conception  of  the 
poet,  "  One  day  telleth  another,  and  one  night  de- 
clareth  to  another,"  so  far  as  the  empire  of  heaven 
extends.^  It  is  that  which,  as  another  poet  writes,  in 
the  thunderstorm,  when  the  clouds  seem  to  part  and 
disclose  the  dazzling  brightness  within,  wrings  from 
the  denizens  of  God's  heavenly  palace  the  cry  of  ador- 
ing wonder.2  Conceived,  again,  as  an  ideal  form  of 
splendour,  it  is  set  by  Isaiah  before  the  Israelites  as 
that  which  should  be  the  object  of  their  reverence,  but 
which  has  been  too  often  the  object  of  their  shame - 
lessness  and  scorn — "  For  their  tongue  and  their  doings 
are  against  the  LORD,  to  defy  the  eyes  of  his  glory."  ^ 
It  is  the  attribute  which  is  disclosed  when  those  who 

^  Ps.  xix.  I,  4.  2  ps^  xxix.  9.  ^  Isa.  iii.  8, 

D 


34  SERMON   II. 

are  the  enemies  of  truth  and  right  are  overcome,  and 
the  kingdom  of  God  extended  upon  earth.^  "  Be 
thou  exalted,  O  God,  above  the  heavens  :  be  thy 
glory  over  all  the  earth,"  prays  the  Psalmist :  ^  let 
Thy  majesty  be  acknowledged  more  widely,  more 
worthily,  than  it  now  is,  amongst  the  nations  of  the 
world.  The  movements  of  history,  in  so  far  as  they 
affect  the  welfare  of  Israel  and  promote  God's 
purposes  of  salvation,  are  a  progressive  revelation  of 
His  glory :  "  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every 
mountain  and  hill  shall  be  brought  low,"  before  the 
nation  returning  from  its  exile,  "  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  shall  see  it 
together."  ^ 

The  text,  however,  speaks  without  any  limitation  : 
*'  The  fulness  of  the  whole  earth  is  his  glory."  Do 
the  words  relate  to  the  present  only,  or  do  they 
embrace  as  well  the  ideal  consummation  which  was 
then — as  it  is  now — still  future  ?  We  cannot  say. 
We  must  be  content  to  understand  the  meaninsf  to  be 

o 

that  the  glory  is  objectively  there  already  ;  though  it 
is  consonant  with  what  other  prophets  express  to 
suppose  that,  as  history  advanced,  it  would  be  both 
more  effectively  manifested,  and  more  adequately 
recognized.  At  all  times  it  is  only  an  eye,  capable  of 
apprehending  more  than  is  conveyed  by  the  channels 
of  sense,  that  is  able  to  discern  it. 

1  Ps.  xxiv.  7,  Isa.  xxvi.  15.  2  p^   j^^j^  ^^  ^j^ 

^  Isa.  xl.  4,  5:  add  lix.  19,  Ixvi.  18'^,  19b,  Ezek.  xxxix.  13 
("get  me  glory'"),  21. 


ISAIAHS  VISION.  35 

Wherein,  then,  we  may  ask,  does  the  world  so 
reflect  the  Being  of  God  as  to  be  the  expression  of 
His  glory?  It  is  visible,  firstly,  in  the  fact,  as  such, 
of  creation.  I  am  not  unaware  of  the  debated 
ground  which  I  am  here  touching.  I  am  familiar 
with  the  maxim  which  beyond  question  is  justified 
by  all  that  experience  teaches.  Ex  niJiilo  niJiil  fit ; 
I  recognize,  moreover,  that  the  idea  cannot  be 
conceived  as  a  possible  object  of  human  science. 
But  the  very  purport  of  Kant's  celebrated  treatment 
of  the  antinomies  was  to  demonstrate,  that  human 
reason,  abandoned  to  itself,  could  but  oscillate 
between  two  equally  inconceivable  alternatives,  and 
that  to  claim  as  possible  an  experiential  knowledge 
of  either  was  self-delusion.  A  belief,  however,  not 
derived  from  experience,  or  claimed  as  verifiable  by 
it,  is  not  excluded  by  the  argument  of  Kant,  even  if 
that  thinker  do  not  expressly  affirm  it.^  It  may, 
therefore,  in  this  connection,  be  not  presumptuous  to 
question  the  finality  of  the  verdict  of  experience.  If 
a  Divine  mind  exist  at  all,  the  conditions  of  its 
operation  must  differ  infinitely  from  any  which  we 
arc  able  to  imagine  ;  the  endeavour,  therefore,  to 
limit  it,  either  by  the  apparent  necessities  of  human 
thought,  or  by  the  conditions  of  human  experience, 
would  seem  to  be  illegitimate.  The  only  limitations 
to  whicli  it  can  be  conceived  to  be  subject  are  the 
moral  and  logical  limitations,  which  have  been  ever 

1  Kritik  der  Rciiieii  VcrniDift,  p.  467  Hartenstein  (=  ii.  597  f. 
Max  Miiller).     See  also  Caird's  Kant,  p.  661  f.  (cf  p.  587  f). 


36  SERMON    II. 

recognized  by  theology,  and  which  are  inherent  in  its 
own  nature  and  are  not  imposed  from  without.^  Those 
at  least,  who  while  not  venturing  to  define  the  mode, 
are  content  to  accept  the  fact,  of  the  dependence  of 
the  visible  universe  upon  a  Divine  Mind,  may  see  in 
it  the  exercise  of  an  august  and  sovereign  preroga- 
tive, differentiating  Him  absolutely  from  the  highest 
of  His  creatures,  a  manifestation  of  His  nature  not 
indeed  adequate  to,  but  worthy  of,  Himself.  For  we 
have  no  right  to  assume  that  a  given  created  system 
is  either  absolutely  perfect,  or  a  fully  adequate  ex- 
pression of  the  Divine  Nature  ;  since 

''  Colui,  che  volse  il  sesto 
Alio  stremo  del  moncio,  e  dentro  ad  esso 
Distinse  tanto  occulto  e  manifesto, 

Non  poteo  suo  valor  si  fare  impresso 
In  tutto  I'universo,  che  il  suo  verbo 
Non  rimanesse  in  infinite  eccesso.^ 

But  with  this  limitation  we  may  see  in  creation  a 
signal  and  palmary  exhibition  of  supreme  goodness  ; 
and,  while  not  presuming  to  scrutinize  or  discover  in 
their  totality  the  motives  by  which  it  was  prompted, 
may  trace  in  it  the  operation  of  that  generous  love  which 
sought  to  communicate  to  other  beings  fragments  of 
its  own  Divine  life,  and  to  call  into  existence  creatures, 
some  with  capacities  to  enjoy  the  gift  of  life,  others 
able  to  apprehend  and  reciprocate  the  love. 

If,  leaving  the  fact  of  creation,  we  contemplate,  so 

^  Comp.  Pearson,  On  the  Crccd^  Art.  vi.,  on  the  Avord  "Al- 
mighty" {TvavTohvva\io<^^  fol.  286-9, 
^  Paradiso^  xix.  40-45. 


ISAIAH  S   VISION.  37 

far  as  we  are  able,  the  means  by  which  an  abode  has 
been  prepared  for  the  reception  of  Hfe  and  intelH- 
gence,  is  it  the  majestic  scale  upon  which  the  process 
has  been  conceived  and  carried  out,  or  the  rare  and 
subtle  mechanism  which  sustains  the  world  in  every 
part,  or  the  intrinsic  adequacy  and  beauty  of  the 
results,  which  impresses  us  as  the  most  commensurate 
expression  of  the  Divine  glory  ?  Do  we  speculate,  as 
our  philosophers  have  done,  upon  the  structure  of 
the  material  elements  of  which  the  fabric  of  created 
things  is  built  ?  Strange  and  surprising  conclusions 
are  obtained,  which  compel  our  wonder,  and  force  us 
to  admit  how  deeply  and  securely,  in  regions  to  which 
no  microscope  can  penetrate,  the  foundations  of  the 
world  have  been  laid.^  Do  we  ask  the  nature  of  the 
process  by  which  this  earth  has  been  fitted  for  the 
habitation  of  man  ?  We  no  longer  suppose,  with  our 
forefathers,  that  it  was  created  substantially  as  we  know 
it  some  6000  years  ago.^  We  can  realize,  however 
inadequately,  the  gigantic  nature  of  the  movements 
involved.  We  can  understand  how  in  its  formation 
every  star  which  we  gaze  upon  in  the  firmament  may 
have  co-operated  ;   the  immeasurable  vista  opens  to 

1  See  Tait,  Recent  Advances  in  Physical  Science  (ed.  3,  1885), 
lectures  xii.  and  xiii.,  "The  Structure  of  Matter"  (esp.  pp.  319 
f.,  329)  ;  and  (more  recently)  Sir  William  Thomson,  Popular 
Lectni'es  and  Addresses^  vol.  i.  (ed.  2,  1891),  "The  Constitution 
of  Matter,"  p.  220  ff.  (and  elsewhere). 

"  So,  for  instance,  Pearson,  On  the  Creed,  Art.  i.  at  the  end  (fol. 
68),  affirms  the  creation  of  the  world  to  have  taken  place  •'  most 
certainly  within  not  more  than  six,  or  at  farthest  seven,  thousand 
years.'' 


38  SERMON    II. 

our  eyes  ;  we  travel  back  through  the  unnumbered 
and  innumerable  ages,  and  though  the  brain  reels  and 
imagination  fails,  can  discern,  at  least  dimly,  the 
mighty  lathe  revolving  in  the  skies,  and  see,  now  and 
again,  the  mass  of  glowing  vapour  flung  off  which  is 
to  become  some  future  sun,  and  v/atch  it  slowly 
changing  shape,  slowly  aggregating,  and  afterwards 
casting  off  in  its  turn  smaller  masses,  each  destined 
to  become  in  time  a  planet.  And  then,  as  our 
interest  centres  on  one  of  these  planets,  we  perceive 
it  slowly  cooling  ;  the  circumambient  vapours  con- 
dense and  form  a  sea ;  barren  and  bleak  for  aeons,  we 
at  length  observe  that  the  rocks  under  the  waters  are 
clad  with  lowly  foliage,  and  lowly  animals  swarm  in 
the  ^deep  ;  we  look  again,  and  the  land  is  covered 
with  things  creeping  innumerable  ;  soon  afterwards, 
for  centuries,  mighty  forests  come  and  go  over  the 
globe  in  seemingly  endless  succession,  huge  reptiles 
are  stirring  everywhere,  and  birds  of  varied  song 
move  in  the  air ;  we  look  again,  and  the  earth  begins 
to  wear  the  appearance  with  vv^hich  in  its  wilder  parts 
we  are  even  now  familiar,  animals  and  trees  and 
flowers  much  as  we  know  them  are  visible  ;  at  length, 
— but  who  shall  say  Where  ?  or  When  ?  —  man 
appears,  and  the  drama  in  the  midst — or  shall  we  say 
at  the  beginning  .? — of  which  v/e  are  actors  ourselves 
begins  to  unfold  itself  before  us.  The  magnitude  and 
duration  of  the  movements  which  have  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  our  earth,  no  ima^jination  can  <7raso  ; 
the  multitudinous  variety  of  living  organisms  which 


ISAIAH'S   VISION.  39 

in  the  ?eons  that  have  passed  have  peopled  it,  no 
tongue  can  describe  ;  the  prodigality  of  resource 
which  has  endowed  this  life  with  the  capacity  of 
adapting,  or,  if  you  will,  of  transforming  itself,  in 
harmony  with  the  varying  conditions  of  its  environ- 
ment, no  science  can  presume  to  gauge.  Hardly 
more  than  twenty-five  years  ago  one  of  our  foremost 
naturalists  ^  ventured  to  define  for  the  ocean  a  zero  of 
life,  below  which,  as  he  supposed,  living  forms  could 
not  subsist  ;  but  since  then  the  secrets  of  the  deep 
have  been  disclosed,  and  its  furthest  recesses  are 
known  now  to  be  astir  v/ith  living  creatures  who  find 
in  its  gloomy  caverns  a  congenial  home.  I  am  not 
engaged  to-day  in  arguing  upwards,  by  any  of  the 
well-known  methods,  from  the  phenom.ena  of  nature 
to  the  existence  of  a  Creator  ;  but  few  will  have  the 
courage  to  deny  that,  if  our  belief  in  creation  be  well- 
founded,  that  which  I  have  here  faintly  adumbrated 
would  be  a  noble  and  worthy  manifestation  of  the 
Creator's  Being. 

But  this  life,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  whence  is  it  ? 
what  is  it  ?  Our  definitions  do  but  define  the  con- 
ditions which  are  observed  to  accompany  it ;  they  do 
not  unlock  the  secret  of  that  subtle  combination  of  a 
few  simple  elements  from  which  it  results,  or  unveil 
the  mystery  of  the  unifying  principle,  which  correlates, 
as    mechanical    or  chemical  forces   do  not  correlate, 

^  Professor  Edward  Forbes.  Sec  Wyville  Thomson's  Depths 
of  the  Sea,  pp.  5,  17  f . ;  or  the  Report  of  the  Challenger^  with 
the  plates,  esp.  vol.  i.  pp.  33-50. 


40 


SERMON    II. 


the  several  parts  of  a  living  organism,  and  welds  them 
into  a  self-contained  whole.  Life  without  sensation, 
as  we  may  presume  it  to  exist  in  plants,  is  marvellous  ; 
life  with  sensation,  implying  the  presence  of  some- 
thing which  can  translate  the  physical  vibration 
coursing  along  the  substance  of  a  nerve  into  a  felt 
pleasure  or  pain,  is  yet  more  so  ;  though  the  climax, 
most  marvellous  of  all,  is  only  reached  when  life  is 
the  exponent  of  a  self-conscious  personality,  able  not 
to  feel  only  but  to  reflect,  not  to  rest  immersed  in  the 
needs  or  sensations  of  the  moment,  but  to  inquire, 
to  speculate,  to  originate,  to  design  ;  not  bounded  by 
the  present,  but  conscious  that  it  stands  related  to  a 
prodigious  past,  to  an  incalculable  future  ;  possessing 
power  to  conceive  and  project  ideals  transcending 
every  limitation  of  sense,  proclaiming  with  a  per- 
sistency that  will  not  be  denied  the  hidden  links 
connecting  it  with  a  supersensuous  world.  In  the 
formation,  not  of  a  dead  material  universe,  but  of  a 
universe  adapted,  in  at  least  one  stage  of  its  history, 
to  support  living  forms,  organized  with  this  lavish 
profusion,  and  gifted  with  all  the  varied  capacities 
which  life  implies,  is  it  an  illusion  to  see  reflected  that 
intense  and  inexpressible  life  which  with  undiminished 
potency  and  fulness  energizes  eternally  in  the  Divine 
Mind  ? 

But  there  is  beauty  in  nature.  True,  beauty  is  a 
relative  term  :  the  symmetry  which  we  admire  in  a 
leaflet  or  flower,  the  delicate  gradations  of  tint  to 
which  a  landscape  owes  its  charm,  alike  imply  the 


ISAIAHS   VISION.  41 

presence  of  an  eye  able  to  recognize  and  admire. 
Nevertheless,  beauty  exists  for  us  ;  and  we,  who 
discern  it,  cannot  pass  it  by.  True,  again,  the 
harmonious  disposition  of  form  and  colour  which  we 
term  beauty,  is  not  something  superadded  to  nature  : 
it  is  inherent  in  it.  The  iridescent  colours  on  this 
insect's  wing,  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  that  tiny 
bloom,  the  graceful  convolutions  of  this  fragile  shell, 
the  glittering  brightness  with  which  a  winter's  morning 
decks  the  forest,  the  changing  hues  which  mark  the 
steps  of  the  declining  year,  the  flood  of  splendour 
which  in  time  of  summer  lights  up  the  springing 
verdure  in  fields  and  meadows,  and  presently,  as 
night  approaches,  suffuses  the  sky  with  a  crimson 
glow — are,  doubtless,  one  and  all,  the  necessary  conse- 
quences of  a  few  optical  and  other  physical  laws. 
That  is  true :  but  it  is  not  the  entire  truth.  In 
nature,  as  in  art,  the  more  perfect  the  beauty,  the 
more  complex  the  means  by  which  it  is  produced. 
The  simplest  form  of  natural  beauty  implies  the 
co-operation  of  an  indefinite  multitude  of  distinct 
factors.  Beauty,  on  its  physical  side,  is  an  adjustment, 
a  resultant  from  the  combination  of  a  practically 
infinite  number  of  minute  elements,  effected  by 
mechanism  the  most  delicate,  by  agencies  the  most 
subtle,  an  adjustment  of  which  the  determining 
conditions  were  fixed  in  the  bosom  of  eternity.  If 
there  be  any  truth  in  the  teachings  of  science,  the 
beauty  which  entrances  our  gaze  to-day  was  implicit 
in  the  substance  of  the  earth,  as  it  was  formed  in  the 


42  SERMON    II. 

remote  and  incalculable  past.     That  the  disposition 
of  natural  substances  and  agencies  which  have  been 
subservient  to  the  maintenance  and  development  of 
life  upon  the  earth  should  in  producing  these  effects 
have  also  produced  what  gratifies  and  impresses  an 
intelligence  contemplating  them,  is  a  remarkable  and 
astonishing  result.   With  admirable  art,  the  mechanism 
of  nature  weaves,  as  it  works,  a  web  of  beauty  ;  and 
the  curtain  which  it  might  have  been  feared  would 
hide  her  rarest  works  of  skill,  in  fact  displays  them. 
Nature  is  a  picture  which  speaks   to  all,  but   most 
effectively,    perhaps,    to    those   who    have    reflected 
somewhat   upon  the  secret   processes  of  which   her 
works  are  the  visible  result.    Her  resplendent  colours, 
her  rich  and  noble  tapestry,  are  a  vesture  worthy  of 
Him,  whose  form  is  hidden  from  mortal  eyes,  but 
whose  presence  is  declared,  as  in  Isaiah's  vision,  by 
the  robe  of  state  pendant  from  the  heavenly  throne. 

But  can  we  trace  any  evidence  of  the  moral 
character  of  God  ^  or  is  the  earth  full  merely  of  the 
tokens  of  His  power?  Surely  we  cannot  be  mistaken 
in  tracing  evidence  of  the  former  in  the  constitution 
of  human  nature,  in  the  affections  and  aspirations 
which  it  displays,  in  the  conditions  upon  which  social 
life  is  observed  to  depend.  However  it  may  be 
accounted  for,  it  remains  as  a  fact  that  human  beings, 
organized  as  societies,  have  developed  instincts  for 
goodness,  have  practised  and  esteemed  such  virtues 
as  kindness,  benevolence,  disinterestedness,  justice. 
Partial  and  rudimentary  within  the  narrow  circle  of 


ISAIAH'S  VISION.  43 

the  tribe,  these  affections  expand  and  are  confirmed 
as  more  settled  habits  are  attained  ;  Hmited  here  to 
one  particular  race,  they  are  elsewhere  extended  to 
embrace  mankind  at  large.  We  cannot  ignore  the 
fact  of  Christianity,  even  while  we  make  no  assump- 
tions as  to  its  origin  or  claims.  Did  we  do  so,  that 
majestic  ''  ethical  monotheism,"  which  has  been 
assigned  by  the  most  searching  of  critics  as  the 
minimum  of  the  prophets'  teaching,  would  rise  up 
and  condemn  us.^  It  is  difficult  to  think  that  any 
theory  of  the  origin  of  these  sentiments,  except 
indeed  such  as  either  merely  restate  in  abstract  but 
imposing  phraseology  the  problem  to  be  solved,  or 
virtually  deny  that  there  are  phenomena  to  be  ex- 
plained at  all,  can  affect  the  evidence  which  they 
afford.  Do  we  see  in  them,  for  example,  an  expansion 
and  generalization  of  the  "sympathetic  desires" 
entertained  by  primitive  man  for  his  family,  his 
friends,  his  clan  ?  Then  in  the  primitive  human 
heart  there  was  still  implicit  the  same  sentiment, 
under  simpler  conditions,  of  which  we  are  conscious 
as  active  in  ourselves.  Do  we  see  in  our  impulses  to 
goodness  the  transformed  instincts  of  self-preservation 
which  we  inherit  from  the  ages  during  which  our  race 
was  slowly  maturing  ?  Then  it  is  implied,  unless  the 
dangerous  metaphor  of  transformation  deceives  us, 
t'nat  human  nature  is  not  solely  receptive,  but 
superadds  to  a  certain  class  of  judgments  an  element 

^  Kuencn,  T/ie  Prophets  and  Prophecy  m  Israel  (1877),  p.  589 
{{.  ;  cf.  the  s:\inc  auth  r's  Hibbert  Lectures^  1882,  pp.  1 14-125. 


44  SERMON    II. 

not  derived  from  experience.  In  either  case,  our 
moral  preference  is  real,  it  is  not  merely  a  disguised 
self-interest  ;  and  its  evidence  is  unimpeachable.  It 
will  not  be  out  of  harmony  with  the  general  order  of 
nature,  if  our  moral  sensibilities  have  been  gradually 
quickened  ;  we  only  demand  that  the  factors  required 
to  produce  the  results  should  be  conceded  explicitly 
at  the  beginning,  and  not  surreptitiously  introduced 
at  some  point  or  other  of  the  process  by  which  a  moral 
and  intelligible  world  is  conceived  to  have  arisen,  and 
afterwards  repudiated.^  Until  it  has  been  shown, 
more  conclusively  than  has  yet  been  done,  that  when 
we  seem  to  be  exercising  a  virtue  we  are  actually 
obeying  an  unreasoning  necessity,  or  are  entangled  in 
the  ruses  of  an  Unconscious  Will,'-^  we  must  see  in  our 
moral  judgments  a  reflection  of  the  character  of  Him 
to  whom  the  faculty  by  which  we  form  them  is  itself 
due.  He  who  has  inspired  human  nature  with  true 
impulses  of  justice  and  generosity,  of  sympathy  and 
love,  with  admiration  for  the  heroic  and  the  noble, 
with  scorn  for  the  ignoble  and  the  mean,  cannot  but 
be  possessed  of  a  kindred  character  Himself.^  He 
could  not  have  constituted  an  intelligence  that  should 
admire,  and  strive  to  realize,  attributes  not  inherent 
in  Himself.  Be  it  that  conscience  in  certain  savage 
tribes  has  remained  undeveloped,  be  it  that  in  other 

^  On  the  theories  of  ethics  just  referred  to,  comp.  W.  L. 
Courtney,  Constructive  Ethics  (1886),  pp.  228-277. 

-  Comp.  ibid.  pp.  278-318. 

^  Comp.  Dr.  Chahiiers,  Bridgewater  Treatise^  part  i.,  chap,  x., 
§  II  {  =  Natural  Theology^  book  iv.,  chap,  vi.,  §  11. 


ISAIAHS  VISION.  45 

cases  it  is  moulded  by  the  habits,  or  reflects  the 
temper,  of  society  around,  it  is  the  capacity  to  acquire 
a  conscience  at  all,  whose  decisions  tend  uniform.ly  in 
one  direction,  which  is  the  "  witness  of  the  soul "  to 
God,  speaking  not  less  eloquently  now  than  when, 
long  ago,  it  was  invoked  by  the  African  apologist 
against  the  polytheism  and  materialism  of  antiquity. 
Though  the  rays  are  broken,  and  the  image  is 
obscured,  the  moral  glory  of  the  Creator  shines  in 
the  world :  it  is  reflected  in  the  verdict  of  the 
individual  conscience ;  it  is  latent  in  the  ethical 
sanctions  upon  which  the  permanence  and  welfare  of 
society  depends. 

But  these,  it  will  be  said,  are  the  illusions  of  a 
superficial  optimism.  There  are  facts  which  neutralize 
the  conclusions  thus  confidently  drawn.  Nature 
herself  is  inconsiderate  and  cruel.  The  life  of  one 
creature  means  the  death,  perhaps  the  painful  death, 
of  many  others.  Human  existence  has  its  ills,  not 
less  than  its  pleasures.  Suffering  surrounds  us  upon 
all  sides.  Here  it  is  some  disease  which  creeps 
insidiously  into  the  frame,  prostrates  it  for  years  upon 
a  couch  of  pain,  or  cuts  it  off  in  the  prime  of  youth 
and  promise.  There  it  is  some  deed  of  treachery 
or  wrong,  which  deprives  the  weak  of  their  right,  and 
embitters  the^  cup  of  life.  Once  it  may  have  been 
the  arbitrary  will  of  a  despot,  or  hard  and  barbaric 
habits  of  life  :  now  it  may  be  some  galling  link  in  the 
chain  of  social  slavery,  or  the  inexorable  tyranny  of 
competition.     The  question  thus  opened  can  here,  it 


46  SERMON    II. 

is  evident,  be  touched  on  but  cursorily.     Doubtless 

the  difficulty  which  such  facts  occasion   can  only  be 

partially  removed.    Such  facts  excite  our  compassion  : 

they  move  our  pity :    they  kindle   our   resentment  : 

they   stimulate   in    us    the   very    feelings    to   whose 

evidence  we  have  just  been  appealing  :  they  cannot 

silence  the  witness  that  we  have  already  found.     As 

regards  moral  evil  it  will  be  sufficient  for  the  present 

argument  to  say  that  it  has  its  source  in  the  human 

will,  operating  admittedly  in  antagonism  to  the  will 

of  God,  and  in  abuse  of  its  gift  of  freedom.     The 

whole  mystery  of  pain  cannot  be  solved  :  death,  and 

violent  death,  was  active  upon  this  globe  ages  before 

our  race  was  seen  upon  it.     But  looking  at  the  brute 

creation  by  itself,  we  cannot  say  that  the  capacity  for 

pain    is    not   a    necessary   condition  of  the   physical 

structure  which  animals  possess,  and  of  the  capacity 

for  enjoyment  which  in  their  case,  as  seems  probable^ 

immeasurably  preponderates  over  pain,     A  thousand 

ties  of  interest  or  affection  bind  us  to  life,  a  thousand 

fears   bid    us   shrink   from    death:    of  all   these  the 

animal   creation    is  unconscious  :   v/hat   to  it   is   the 

poignancy  and  bitterness  of  the  grave .?     Nor,  again, 

is  pain  wholly  an  evil  :  it  is  a  means  to  an  end  :  to 

the  individual  it  is  a  preservative  from  danger  :  it  has 

been  an  instrument  in  the  formation  and  improvement 

of  the  race.^     If,  again,  we  consider  the  lower  animals 

^  Comp.  further  on  this  subject,  F.  A.  Dixey,  "  The  Necessity 
of  Pain,"  in  No.  xix.  of  the  Oxford  House  Papers  (Rivingtons, 
London,  1888)  ;  and  the  third  Essay  in  Lux  Mumil  o\\  ''The 
Problem  of  Pain,"  by  J.  R.  Ilhngworth. 


ISAIAH'S   VISION.  47 

as  affected  by  the  intervention  of  man,  undoubtedly 
their  sufferings  have  been  increased  thereby ;  but 
while  the  use  made  of  them  is  legitimate,  it  is  not 
more  than  an  extension  of  that  economy  Ijy  which 
one  part  of  nature  is  dependent  upon  another :  where 
it  is  not  legitimate,  it  results  from  an  abuse  of  human 
power,  and  stands  upon  the  same  ground  as  other 
wrongs  which  have  their  source  in  a  depraved  human 
will. 

If,  lastly,  we  look  at  society,  the  ills  which  are 
indeed  sadly  patent  in  it  must  be  admitted,  even  by 
an  opponent,  to  be  due  largely  to  causes,  the  operation 
of  which  might  be  at  once  neutralized  by  the  most 
ordinary  exercise  of  forethought  and  thrift.  Labour, 
exertion  is  not  an  evil :  it  braces  and  strengthens  the 
character:  to  be  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  labour, 
either  mental  or  bodily,  though  sometimes  anticipated 
as  the  highest  of  blessings,  is  more  often  nothing  less 
than  a  curse.  In  other  cases  physical  evil  is  a  result 
of  human  wrong-doing  ;  and  in  so  far  as  it  has  tlius 
a  tendency  to  prevent  or  punish  sin,  is  a  declaration 
that  God  is  not  merely  benevolent,  but  that  His 
benevolence  is  limited  and  guided  by  righteousness. 
Suffering  which  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  consequence 
of  sin,  whether  it  comes  in  the  form  of  accident  or 
disease,  or  in  one  of  the  countless  ways  in  which  the 
innocent  are  entangled  in  the  misdoings  of  the  guilty, 
may  partly  have  a  moral,  disciplinary  value,  and 
partly  results  from  the  operation  of  general  laws,  the 
suspension    of  which    in   individual   cases   could   not 


48  SERMON   II. 

be   reasonably  demanded,  and   would   involve,  if  it 
were  permitted,  irremediable  disorder.      Nor,  if  the 
teaching  of  Christianity  be  true,  can   it  be  objected 
that   the    Creator   watches   with    indifference    either 
misery  or  sin.     We  can  but  suggest,  with  hesitation 
and  trembling,  partial  alleviations  of  the  difficulty. 
Either  no  reason  higher  than  our  own  exists  in  the 
universe,  in  which  case  the  facts  of  human  reason 
itself  are  inexplicable ;  or  there  is  a  reason  higher 
than  our  own,  and  in  this  case  it  seems  incredible 
that  the  moral  susceptibilities  of  the  creature  can  be 
keener    or    truer    than    those   of    its    Maker.     The 
inference   to  which  the  dilemma  points  is  that   the 
source  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  our  imperfect  appre- 
hension of  the    entire   plan   of  creation.     And    yet, 
until  we  have  apprehended  this,  and  then  found  that 
the  difficulty  admits  of  no  rational  explanation,  the 
positive  evidence  which  we  have  obtained  is  not  to  be 
gainsaid.     The  result  of   modern   scientific   research 
has  been  indefinitely  to  enlarge  and  strengthen  our 
conception    of    the    solidarity    of    nature.      In    the 
interdependence   here,   in    the    correlation    there,    of 
widely  separated  parts,   we    trace  unmistakably  the 
expression  of  a  comprehensive  and  deeply  laid  plan. 
If   these    arc    the    characteristics    of  nature,   viewed 
under  its  physical  aspect,  it  is  not   unreasonable  to 
expect  similar  characteristics   in   the   phenomena  of 
conscious  life.    There  is  much  that  we  still  see  darkly 
and    imperfectly :    wisdom    counsels    us   to   trust,  as 
analogy  persuades  us  to  believe,  that  in  the  light  cf  a 


ISAIAH'S  VISION.  49 

truer  perspective,  the  anomalies  which  perplex  us 
would  disappear.  Let  us  be  grateful  to  those  Hebrew 
prophets,  whose  visions  have  shown  us  glimpses  of 
an  unseen  world,  and  whose  intuitions  have  pierced 
where  reason  could  never  have  hoped  to  reach.  They 
have  left  reason  abundant  scope  for  speculation  ;  but 
they  have  ennobled  for  us  nature  and  history :  they 
have  irradiated  the  darkness  that  must  otherwise  have 
hung  about  our  steps.  Let  us  appropriate  and  seek 
to  realize  the  few  but  pregnant  words  of  the  seraph's 
hymn,  whose  echoes  are  so  familiar  to  us,  and  let  our 
own  voices  unite  with  the  celestial  chorus,  "  Holy, 
Holy,  Holy,  is  the  LORD  of  Hosts  :  the  fulness  of  the 
whole  earth  is  his  glory." 


E 


SERMON  III.^ 

THE    IDEALS    OF    THE    PROPHETS. 

Gen.  xii.  3  :  "And  I  ^Yill  bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  him 
that  curseth  thee  will  I  curse  :  and  through  thee  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  bhssed." 

A  DOUBLE  stream  of  narrative  runs  through  the  first 
four  Books  of  the  Pentateuch.  One  of  these,  from 
the  interest  which  it  displays  in  the  ceremonial 
institutions  of  Israel,  may  be  conveniently  termed  the 
Priestly  narrative ;  the  other,  conspicuous  for  its 
spiritual  affinities  with  the  writings  of  the  canonical 
prophets,  may  be  suitably  described  as  the  Prophetical 
narrative.  In  accordance  with  the  mode  of  com- 
position often  followed  by  the  Hebrew  historical 
writers,  the  two  narratives  have  been  combined  in  our 
present  Pentateuch :  but  the  lines  of  demarcation 
between  them  are  clearly  definable ;  for  in  spirit,  not 
less  than  in  phraseology  and  style,  they  differ  materi- 
ally. The  Priestly  narrative  culminates  in  the  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  theocratic  institutions,  the 
Tabernacle,    the   priesthood,   the    sacrificial    system, 

^  Preached  at  St.  Mary's,  before  the  University,  on  Sunday, 
Oct.  25,  1885. 


THE   IDEALS    OF   THE    PROPHETS.  5 1 

contained  in  the  three  middle  Books  of  the  Pentateuch  ; 

in  the  preceding  history  only  important  occurrences, 

such  as  the  Creation,  or   the   covenants  with    Noah 

and    Abraham,   are    described    with    minuteness,  the 

narrative  in  other  respects  being  brief,  and  hmited  to 

such    details   as    v/ould    naturally  be   included    in    a 

historical  introduction  to   the  author's  main   subject. 

The  Prophetical   narrative,  from  which   the  popular 

view  of  the  pr.triarchal  and  Mosaic  period  is  mostly 

derived,  exhibits  to  us  the  lives  and    doings  of  tlie 

patriarchs   and    their    descendants,   in    a    series    of 

pictures,  graphic  in  delineation,  inimitable  in  literary 

form,  and  evincing  a  delicacy  of  touch  and  expression, 

a  warmth  of  religious  symipath}^,  and  a  keenness  of 

moral  and  psychological  perception,  unsurpassed   in 

the    v/ritings    of    the    Old    Testament.      Expanded, 

elevated,   and   deepened,    the    spirit   which   animates 

the  Prophetical  narrative  reappears  in  the  noble  and 

impressive  eloquence  of   Deuteronomy.     The  theme 

of   Deuteronomy   is    the   observance,   not    as    a   law 

imposed    from    without,    but    as   an    intelligent    and 

spontaneous  expression  of  the  heart,  of  the  Decalogue 

and  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  which  form  an  integral 

part  of  the  Prophetical  narrative  in  Exodus.^ 

^  In  support  of  the  statements  contained  in  the  preceding 
paragraph,  the  writer  may  be  permitted  no'.f  to  refer  to  his 
Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testaiiiejit  (ed.  3, 
1892),  especially  pp.  109-114,  118  122,  and  (on  Deuteronomy, 
and  its  relation  to  Ex.  xx.-xxiii.),  pp.  70-74,  91.  The  Decalogue 
(Ex.  XX.  2-17)  and  "  Book  of  the  Covenant"  (Ex.  xx.  22— xxiii. 
33  [see  xxiv.  7]  ;  cf  xxxiv.  10-26)  form  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  Deuteronomic  legislation  is  constructed. 


52  SERMON    III. 

The  text  sets  before  us  one  of  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  Prophetical  narrative,  that  conscious- 
ness of  the  ideal  destiny  of  Israel,  which  developed 
afterwards  into  the  definite  hope,  commonly  termed 
Messianic.  Unfettered  by  the  political  and  material 
limitations  of  his  age,  and  looking  beyond  the  horizon 
of  his  own  time,  the  narrator  discerns  in  dim  outline  the 
far-off  goal  of  Israel's  history,  and  enables  his  reader, 
with  increasing  clearness  of  vision,  to  discern  it  with 
him.  Let  me  survey,  rapidly,  the  stages  in  which  he 
does  this.  The  first  is  the  familiar  Protevangelion  of 
the  third  chapter,^  where  hope  already  steps  in  to 
brighten  the  dark  prospect,  and  alleviate  the  effects 
of  the  Fall,  and  where,  though  the  struggle  reserved 
for  man  may  bring  with  it  suffering  and  danger,  and 
be  protracted  through  uncounted  generations,  the 
issue,  it  is  hinted,  is  not  doubtful,  but  the  seed  of  the 
woman  will,  in  the  end,  prevail.  Antagonism  to  evil 
is  decreed  to  be  the  law  of  humanity  ;  and  though 
the  nature  of  the  influences  prompting  man  to  resist 
it,  the  course  which  the  contest  would  take,  and  the 
manner  in  which  the  triumph  would  be  finally  secured, 
are  not  even  remotely  indicated,  the  outlook  is  one 
of  promise  and  hope.  We  pass  on,  and  come  to 
Noah,  the  representative  of  the  new  humanity  after 
the  Flood,  and  his  three  sons  typifying,  the  three  great 
divisions  of  the  human  race  with  which  the  Hebrews 
were  acquainted.  The  significance  of  the  epoch  is 
seized    by   the   narrator ;    the    broad    differences   of 

1  Gen.  iii.  15. 


THE  IDEALS  OF  THE  PROPHETS.       53 

character  stamped  upon  these  nationah'ties  are  referred 
to  the  spell  of  the  patriarchal  blessing.^  Obscure 
though  the  words  are^  we  seem  to  see  prefigured  the 
expansive  energy  and  many-sidedness  of  the  nations 
of  Europe,  the  political  dependence  and  moral  degra- 
dation of  the  populations  of  Canaan,  and  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  people  descended  from  Shem,  on  account 
of  the  light  of  religious  truth  shining  in  its  midst. 
"Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Shem!"  thus,  ex- 
pressively, is  Shem  designated  as  the  most  fortunate 
of  the  patriarch's  sons  ;  and  it  is  within  the  limits  of 
Shem's  descendants  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  must, 
if  it  is  to  be  successful,  carry  on  the  conflict. 

There  follows  the  passage  which  I  read  as  my  text. 
It  is  typical  of  many,  addressed  sometimes  to  Abra- 
ham, sometimes  to  one  of  the  other  patriarchs.  All 
breathe  the  same  spirit  ;  most  are  expressed  nearly 
in  the  same  words.^  In  part,  the  promises  relate 
only  to  the  nation  of  which  the  patriarchs  are  to  be 
the  ancestors ;  its  numbers,  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  or 
as  the  sand  which  is  upon  the  sea-shore  ;  the  certainty 
with  which  it  will  enter  into  possession  of  Canaan, 
even  to  the  ideal  limits  reached  by  the  dominion  of 
Solomon  ;  ^  the  blessings  of  external  prosperity 
which  will  flow  to  it.     Elsewhere,  a  wider  prospect  is 

1  Gen.  ix.  25-27. 

2  Gen.  xii.  2-3,  xiii.  14-17,  xv.  5,  18,  xviii.  18,  xxii.  15-18 
(Abraham);  xxvi.  2-5,  24  (Isaac);  xxvii.  27-29,  xxviii.  13-15 
(Jacob)  ;  xlix.  10  (Judah). 

3  Gen.  XV.  18,  cf.  Ex.  xxiii.  31;  and  see  i  Kings  i\^  21. 
These  passages  explain  the  terms  of  the  promise  in  Is.  xxvii.  12. 


54  SERMON    III. 

Opened,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  brought 
within  the  sphere  of  Israel's  influence.  Three  times, 
it  is  said,i  throuc^h  the  patriarchs  (or  their  seed)  shall 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed  ;  twice,-  in  passages 
due  perhaps  to  another  hand,  it  is  said  that  they  will 
bless  themselves  by  it,  i.  e.  will  own  it  as  a  source  of 
good,  and  desire  for  themselves  the  blessings  proceed- 
ing from  it.  Objectively,  in  other  words,  the  truth 
of  which  Israel  is  the  organ  and  channel  is  to  become 
a  blessing  to  the  world  ;  and  subjectively,  it  is  to  be 
recognized  by  the  world  as  such.^  The  thought  in  the 
latter  case  is  one  whicli  becomes  explicit  in  Isaiah, 
and  may  be  illustrated  from  his  vision  of  the  nations 
urging  one  another  to  take  part  in  the  pilgrimage  to 
Zion  :  **  Come,  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of 
the  Lord,  for  he  will  teacli  us  out  of  his  wa}'s,  and 
we  will  walk  in  liis  paths  ;  for  out  of  Zion  shall  go 
forth  instruction,  and  the  word  of  the  LORD  from 
Jerusalem."  ^  The  promises  belonging  to  the  Priestly 
narrative  do  not  look  so  far.  The  Priestly  narrative 
dwells  upon  important  truths  ;  it  analyses  the  internal 

1  Gen.  xii.  3,  xviii.  18,  xxviii.  14. 

2  Gen.  xxii.  18,  xxvi.  4. 

2  Co'.np.  Riebtn,  Messianic  Prophecy  (ed.  2,  Edinburgh,  1891 ), 
p.  97  f.,  %vho,  however,  interprets  differently  the  three  passages 
first  cited,  treating  them — it  must  be  admitted,  in  agreement 
with  most  modern  s:holars — as  expressing  the  same  sense  as 
the  two  last  quoted.  Too  much  stress  must  not,  therefore,  be 
laid  upon  the  distinction  expressed  in  the  text ;  though  the  fact 
of  a  different  conjugation  being  used  in  the  two  sets  of  passages 
would  seem  to  create  a  presumption  in  its  favour.  In  illustration 
of  the  expression  "bless  by^''  see  Gen.  xlviii.  20  (R.V.  viarg.). 

"*  Is.  ii.  3. 


THE   IDEALS   OF   THE   PROPHETS.  55 

organization  of  the  theocracy  ;  it  shows  the  signifi- 
cance of  its  ceremonial  institutions  ;  it  formulates  a 
conception  of  priesthood  and  sacrifice,  destined  to 
assume  a  central  position  in  the  ultimate  phase  of 
Israel's  religion.  In  accordance  with  this,  its  general 
scope,  the  promises  embodied  in  it  are  limited  to 
Israel  itself.^  They  emphasize  the  perpetuity  of  the 
relationship  to  be  established  between  Israel  and  its 
God,  and  bring  this  into  connection  with  their  pos- 
session of  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  but  they  nowhere 
contemplate  the  exertion  by  Israel  of  an  influence 
upon  the  v/orld  without.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Prophetical  narrative  of  the  Pentateuch  is  inspired 
by  that  consciousness  of  a  w^oi Id-wide  mission  for 
Israel,  which  finds  afterwards  its  more  distinct  and 
definite  expression  in  the  prophets. 

What,  we  may  ask,  is  the  source  of  this  conception 
of  the  ideal  destiny  of  Israel,  which  thus  prevails' 
in  so  many  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  ?  Without 
committing  ourselves  to  any  theory  of  the  growth  of 
Hebrew  historical  literature,  it  seems  possible  to 
point  to  certain  fundamental  ideas,  presupposed 
already  in  what  h?Lve  every  appearance  of  being  the 
oldest  sources  of  the  history,  which  may  help  us  to 
answer  the  question.  The  song  of  Moses  in  Exodus 
XV.,  and  that  of  Deborah  in  Judges  v.,  attest  for  a 
period    more  ancient   than   that   of  the  narrative  in 

^  Gen.  xvii.  6-8,  xxxv.  11- 12,  Ex.  vi.  2-8,  xxix.  43-46.  The 
two  series  of  proaiises  deserve  to  be  compared  with  each  other 
in  detail. 


56  '  SERMON    III. 

which    they   are   embedded/   the    close    relationship 
already  regarded  as  subsisting  between  Israel  and  its 
God.     They  speak  of  the  "  people  "  of  Jehovah,  the 
people   "claimed"   and  "purchased"   by    Him   from 
bondage  in  Egypt,  the  people  by  whose  deliverance 
the  God  of  their  ancestors  had  shown  Himself  to  be 
the  ''  strength  and  salvation  "  of  their  descendants.^ 
Other  ancient   designations  are  the  inheritance,^  the 
possession,^  the  house  -^  of   Jehovah  ;  or,  in    a    more 
personal   sense,  His    firstborn.'^     The   idea  of  which 
different  aspects  are  denoted  under  these  figures  is, 
doubtless,  expressed  most  simply  in  the  phrase  first 
quoted,  the  people  of  Jehovah.     At    first,  probably, 
it  was  not   distinctly  perceived   that   the  God  Who 
thus  owned   Israel's  allegiance  was  also  the  Lord  of 
the  whole  earth.     Israel  had  its  God,  as  other  nations 
had   their  gods,  whose   real   existence  was    scarcely 
denied.'^     But   gradually  it   was    seen  what   the   ex- 
pression involved,  and  when  analysed,  it  was  found 
to  mean  that  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  had  really 
become    Israel's  God,  had   separated    for  Himself  a 
particular  nation  in  which  to  manifest  His  presence, 
and    accomplish    His    purposes   for   mankind.     Two 
passages  in  the  Prophetical  narrative  of  the  Pentateuch 
exhibit  this  truth  clearly.     The  first  is  the  declaration 

^  See  the  writer's  Ifitrodicction,  pp.  27,  114,  161  f. 
2  Ex.  XV.   2,  13   (''redeemed,"  more  exactly   ''reclaimed"), 
16*';  Judg.  V.  11^  cf.  23^ 
'  Ex.  XV.  17,  I  Sam.  xxvi.  19,  2  Sam.  xiv.  16,  xx.  19. 
*  Ex.  xix.  5.  s  Num.  xii.  7.  ^  Ex.  iv.  22. 

^  Ex.  XV.  II,  I  Sam.  xxvi.  19,  Judg.  xi.  24. 


THE   IDEALS   OF    THE   PROPHETS.  5/ 

to  Abraham,  so  strangely  and  unfortunately  mis- 
rendered  in  the  Authorized  Version/  "  Shall  I  hide 
from  Abraham  that  which  I  do  .  .  .  For  I  have 
known  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may  command  his 
children  and  household  after  him,  that  they  may 
keep  the  way  of  the  LORD,  to  do  justice  and  judg- 
ment ? "  Jehovah  declares  here  that  He  has  entered 
into  a  special  relation  with  Abraham,  in  order  to 
convey  to  him  a  fuller  knowledge  of  His  ways,  which 
he  may  pass  on  to  his  descendants.  The  other 
passage  is  in  the  description  of  the  consecration  of 
the  nation  at  Sinai  :  ^  "  Now,  therefore,  if  ye  will 
obey  my  voice  indeed,  and  keep  my  covenant,  then 
yc  shall  be  a  peculiar  treasure  to  me  from  among 
all  peoples  ;  for  all  the  earth  is  mine  ;  and  ye  shall 
be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests,  and  an  holy  nation." 
Because  the  whole  earth  is  Jehovah's,  and  His  choice, 
therefore,  is  unrestricted,  Israel  is  chosen  by  Him  out 
of,  and  in  preference  to,  all  other  nations,  to  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  His  ownership  and  protection  ;  as  we 
may  venture  to  suppose,  chosen  not  arbitrarily,  but 
because  in  genius  and  temper  it  v/as  best  fitted  to 
realize  God's  purposes  towards  man,  to  be  the  channel 
of  His  grace,  and  to  develop,  through  many  failures, 
an  ideal  of  godliness  and  faith.  Only,  as  is  obvious, 
since  Jehovah  is  a  jealous  God,  and  makes  moral 
demands  of  His  worshippers,  this  relation  involves 
reciprocal  obligations  and  responsibilities,  on  which, 
however,  I  have  no  occasion  at  present  to  dwell. 
1  Gen.  xviii.  17,  19.  -  Ex.  xix.  5-6. 


58  SERMON    III. 

Israel  is  the  people  of  God;  here  is  the  fruitful  germ 
of  their  entire  future.  The  whole  earth  is  the  Lord's  ; 
and  therefore,  as  the  same  prophetical  narrator  antici- 
pates, it  must  in  the  end  "  be  filled  with  his  glory,"  ^ 
and  through  Israel's  intervention  all  flesh  shall  be 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  His  salvation.  We  see 
the  prophets  of  Israel,  almost  from  the  earliest  times, 
in  possession  of  ideas  which  are,  so  to  speak,  naturally 
expansive,  which  point  to  realities  beyond  themselves, 
and  which  imply  logically  the  removal  of  the  limita- 
tions which  for  the  time  confine  them.  The  earliest 
records  of  the  Old  Testament  are  Dresrnant  with  the 

J.  o 

auguries  of  a  noble  future  ;  they  are  inspired  by  the 
consciousness  of  an  ideal  at  first  discerned  dimly  and 
in  outline,  afterwards  defined  more  accurately,  an 
ideal  moreover  which,  as  history  proceeded,  so  far 
from  proving  itself  an  illusion,  or  an  impracticable 
vision,  was  actually,  more  or  less  completely,  realized. 
Let  us  follow,  in  some  of  its  more  salieiit  aspects,  its 
development. 

The  establishment  of  the  monarchy  forms  an  epoch 
in  Israelitish  history.  The  monarchy  created  in 
Israel  a  sense  of  national  unity,  and  gave  a  new 
impulse  to  national  feeling,  which  though  soon  indeed 
ruptured,  never  ceased  to  be  remembered,  and  left  its 
mark  upon  the  whole  subsequent  history.  David 
and  Solomon  secured  for  Judah,  in  particular,  a 
prestige  and  a  pre-eminence  which  never  afterwards 
forsook  it.     The  nation  culminated   in  its  monarch  ; 

^  Num.  xiv.  21. 


THE  IDEALS  OF  THE  PROPHETS.       59 

its  aims  and  aspirations  became  his ;  he  was  the 
permanent  centre  by  which  its  different  parts  were 
held  together,  and  tlic  welfare  of  the  whole  was  main- 
tained. Instituted  under  the  favour  and  approval  of 
God/  his  earliest  title  is  "  Jehovah's  Anointed  one  "  ;  ^ 
his  position  is  unique ;  in  defending  his  country's 
cause  he  fights  the  "battles  of  Jehovah"  ;  ^  his  person 
is  sacred — '*  Who  will  put  forth  his  hand  against  the 
Lord's  Anointed,  and  be  guiltless  ?  "  ^  As  representa- 
tive of  the  nation,  the  hopes  fixed  upon  the  nation 
are  transferred  to  him  ;  prophets  announce  to  him  a 
glorious  future,  poets  make  him  their  theme  ;  his 
figure  is  idealized,  and  the  portrait  of  the  Messianic 
King  is  before  us.  This,  however,  was  only  attained 
gradually;  let  us  trace  the  steps  in  detail.  The 
substance,  if  not  the  exact  words,  of  the  momentous 
announcement  made  to  David  by  Nathan^  is  doubt- 
less correctly  preserved.  To  his  successor,  Israel's 
own  title  of  son  is  solemnly  attached  ;^  the  perpetuity 
of  his  dynasty  is  promised  ;  though  temporarily  dis- 
graced it  will  not  be  permanently  set  aside ;  the 
future  of  Israel's  existence  is  definitely  associated 
with  Israel's  king."  The  thought  is  repeated  in 
David's   beautiful   "  Last   Words,"  ^    in    which,  after 

^  I  Sam.  ix.  15  f.,  x.  i. 

2  I  Sam.  xvi.  6,  xxiv.  6,  10,  xxvi.  9,  16,  2  Sam,  xix.  22. 

^  I  Sam.  xviii.  17,  xxv.  28. 

^  I  Sam.  xxvi.  9  ;  cf.  xxiv.  6,  2  Sam.  i.  14,  16. 

^  2  Sam.  vii.  4-16. 

^  2  Sam.  vii.  14  (cf.  the  quotation  in  Ps.  Ixxxix.  26  f.) :  see  Ex. 
iv.  22  f.,  Hos.  xi.  I. 

"  2  Sam.  vii.  14-16.  ^2  Sam.  xxiii.  1-7. 


6o  SERMON    III. 

dwelling  on  the  blessings  of  a  just  rule,  he  expresses 
his  confidence  in  the  future  reserved  for  his  own 
house.  In  these  passages  are  drawn  the  first  linea- 
ments of  the  features  which  were  afterwards  more 
fully  developed  in  the  Messianic  Psalms. 

The  great  prophets  amplify  in  different  directions 
the  thought  of  Israel's  ideal  future.  1  will  select  three 
typical  illustrations  of  this.  Amos  prophesied  in  the 
Northern  Kingdom  towards  the  middle  of  the  8th 
century  B.C.,  and  was  the  first,  so  far  as  we  know,  to 
point  out  to  his  countrymen  the  determining  influence 
soon  to  be  exerted  by  the  Assyrians  upon  the  history 
of  Western  Asia.^  Amos  rudely  shatters  the  illusions 
of  security  cherished  by  the  proud  citizens  of  Samaria.^ 
Appropriating  the  words  of  the  prophetical  narrator 
of  Genesis,  he  gives  them  an  unexpected  and  startling 
application  :  "  You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the 
families  of  the  earth :  therefore  will  I  visit  upon  you 
all  your  iniquities."  ^  But  while  declaring  the  certainty 
of  approaching  evil  and  disgrace,  his  prophecy  does  not 
close  without  a  reservation  ;  the  chosen  people  cannot 
be  entirely  cast  off;  the  nation,  though  the  vision  of 
woe  seemed  to  threaten  it  with  extinction,  is  only 
sifted,  so  that  no  sound  grain  falls  to  the  earth.^  The 
breach  which  the  empire  of  David  had  lately  sustained 
will   be  healed,''  and  its  power  re-established    to   its 

^  Amos  vi.  14. 

2  See  Amos  v.  18-20,  vi.  1-7,  13,  ix.  lo^ 

^  Amos  iii.  2 ;  see  Gen.  xviii.  18,  19. 

^  Amos  ix.  8-10. 

^  Amos  ix.  II  ;  see  2  Kings  xiv.  13. 


THE   IDEALS   OF   THE   PROPHETS.  6l 

old  limits.!  Amos  substantially  renews  and  re-asserts 
the  promise  of  Nathan  ;  the  re-elevation  of  David's 
weakened  house,  the  restoration  to  Israel  of  material 
prosperity,  are  the  aspects  of  the  future  upon  which 
his  thoughts  rest. 

We  come  to  Isaiah,  who  in  the  prophecies  inspired 
by  the  great  crises  through  which  he  saw  his  country 
pass,  gives  brilliant  and  distinct  expression  to  Israel's 
hope.  He  develops  it  in  three  directions.  First,  he 
anticipates  for  his  people  the  speedy  advent  of  an 
ideal  future,  when  the  nation,  purified,  regenerated, 
transformed,  will  be  true  to  its  ideal  character,  and 
realize  its  ideal  aims.  In  Exodus  we  read,  "And 
ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests,  and  an 
holy  nation " :  ^  Isaiah  writes,  ''  And  he  that  is  left 
in  Zion,  and  he  that  remaineth  in  Jerusalem,  shall 
be  called  holy " ;  and  in  imagery  drawn  from  the 
narrative  of  the  Pentateuch,  he  depicts  the  super- 
natural splendour  which  will  rest  as  a  canopy  and 
defence  over  the  sacred  city."  Again  and  again  is 
the  thought,  with  a  wealth  and  variety  of  imagery, 
which   only  Isaiah  can  command,,  reiterated  ;   again 

1  Amos  ix.  12.  The  allusion  is  to  the  nations  which  David 
had  subjugated  (2  Sam.  viii.),  and  "  over  which,"  in  consequence, 
Jehovah's  "  name  had  been  called''  in  token  of  ownership  (see, 
in  illustration  of  this  expression,  2  Sam.  xii.  28,  R.V.  inarg.^ 
Ucut.  xxviii.  10,  I  Kings  viii.  43,  Jcr.  vii.  10,  11,  xxv.  29. 
In  the  English  Bible  the  phrase  is  usually  rendered,  obscurely 
and  inexactly,  ''called  by  my  name,"  but  the  correct  rendering 
is  sometimes  given  on  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version,  e.g. 
in  Jer.  vii.  10). 

2  Ex.  xix.  6.  ^  Is.  iv.  3,  5,  6. 


62  SERMON    III. 

and  again  do  we  linger  on  those  marvellous  pictures 
of  serenity,  purity,  and  peace,  which  are  the  creations 
of  his  inspired  imagination.^  And  it  is  not  solely,  or 
even  primarily,  the  return  of  material  prosperity 
upon  which  his  interest  is  fixed  ;  it  is  the  future  in 
its  spiritual  aspects,  the  regeneration  of  the  people, 
its  conformity  to  its  ideal  character,  which  is  the 
conspicuous  and  central  feature  in  nearly  every 
picture  which  he  draws. 

Here,  then,  is  one  aspect  of  the  future,  as  conceived 
by  Isaiah.  A  second  aspect  is  connected  directly 
with  the  promise  of  Nathan.  In  lieu  of  the  mere 
permanence  of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  in  lieu  of  the 
abstract  figure  of  David,  under  v/hom  Hosea  declares 
that  the  broken  unity  of  the  nation  will  be  repaired,^ 
Isaiah  sets  before  us  the  concrete  personality  of  the 
Messianic  King.  We  can  follow  the  stages  by  v/hich 
the  idea  took  shape  in  his  mind.  First,  on  occasion 
of  that  memorable  interview  with  Ahaz,  when,  after 
the  sullen  repulse  of  his  offer  by  the  king,  there  rises 
before  his  mental  eye,  as  it  would  seem  without  pre- 
meditation, the  vision  of  the  maiden,  soon  to  give 
birth  to  the  child,  who,  in  spite  of  the  destitution 
through  which  his  country  must  first  pass,  is  still  the 
mysterious    pledge   and    symbol   of  its  deliverance.^ 

^  See,  for  instance,  Is.  i.  26-27,  xxx.  19-26,  xxxii.  1-8,  15-18, 
xxxiii.  20,  21. 

2  Hos.  iii.  5. 

^  Is.  vii.  14-16.  The  destitution  is  indicated  by  the  simple 
fare  of  "curdled  milk  and  honey,"  to  which  the  child  (vii.  15) 
not  less  than  the  people  generally  (vii.  21  f.),  will  be  reduced. 


THE   IDEALS   OF    THE   PROPHETS.  63 

A  year  or  more  passes  by  :  ^  again  the  prophet  is 
discoursing  on  the  political  prospects  of  his  country  ; 
he  is  watching  the  torrent  of  Assyrian  invasion,  as  it 
inundates  the  Northern  Kingdom  ;  he  sees  it  sweep- 
ing impetuously  onward  into  Judah  ;  it  threatens  to 
submerge  all  ;  it  has  already  risen  to  the  neck — "  and 
the  stretchinp-  out  of  his  winsfs  shall  fill  the  breadth 
of  thy  land,  O  Immanuel ! "  No  sooner  does  the 
magic  word  escape  the  prophet's  lips,  than  his  tone 
instantly  changes ;  the  torrent  melts  away :  he 
challenges,  defiantly,  the  combined  nations,  distant 
or  near,  and  with  a  burst  of  triumph,  announces  their 
overthrow.-  Can  clearer  proof  be  needed,  how  vividly 
the  prophet  realizes  the  unborn  child  of  his  imagin- 
ation, or  with  what  august  attributes  he  conceives 
him  to  be  endowed  ?  And  at  the  end  of  the  same 
section,  when  the  clouds  which  darken  the  political 
horizon  have  finally  lifted,  and  a  morning  of  hope 
and  joy  breaks  upon  the  restored  people,  we  see  the 
child,  invested  with  every  attribute  of  an  ideal  prince, 
ruling  in  David's  seat,  and  inaugurating  a  reign  of 
peace  :  "  For  all  the  arm.our  of  the  armed  men  in  the 
tumult,  and  the  garments  rolled  in  blood,  shall  be 
for  burnin^r,  for  fuel  of  fire.  For  a  child  is  born  unto 
us,  a  son  is  given  unto  us  ;  and  the  government  is 
upon  his  shoulder  ;  and  his  na.n\c.  is  called,  Wonderful 
Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father,  Prince 
of    Peace."  2      Nor   is    this    all.      Twenty,    or,    more 

^  Is.  viii.  1-4.  ^  Is.  viii.  7-10. 

^  Is.  ix.  5-7  (the  end  of  the  section  which  begins  at  viii.  5). 


64  SERMON   III. 

probably,  thirty^  years  afterwards,  when  the  army  of 
Sennacherib,  having  reduced,  one  after  another,  his 
rebeUious  vassals  in  Phoenicia,  is  starting  southwards 
to  wreak  upon  Jerusalem  a  like  fate,  the  prophet, 
having  in  a  passage  of  unsurpassed  irony  and  power  2 
declared  his  failure,  proceeds  to  that  unique  delinea- 
tion of  the  Messianic  age,^  which  has  been  pronounced, 
not  unjustly,^  to  be  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
creation  of  pre-Christian  times.  Again  the  prince  of 
David's  line  is  set  before  us,  endowed  by  the  spirit  of 
Jehovah  with  a  threefold  gift,  with  the  faculty  of 
quick  and  true  perception,  with  strength  alike  in 
deliberation  and  action,  with  profound  religious 
intuitions,  delicate  and  acute  in  discrimination,  saga- 
cious in  judgment,  effecting  by  the  breath  of  his 
mouth — a  wonderful  image — what  ordinary  rulers 
would  only  accomplish  by  physical  coercion,  trans- 
forming the  wild  passions  of  human  nature,  and 
finally,  by  the  moral  attractiveness  of  his  own 
personality,  riveting  the  attention  and  interest  of  the 

^  The  capture  of  Damascus,  foretold  in  Is.  viii.  4,  is  fixed  by 
the  Inscriptions  for  B.C.  732  ;  and  the  deportation  of  the  in- 
habitants of  ZebuUm,  Naphtah,  &c.  (2  Kings  xv.  29),  alluded  to 
in  Is.  ix.  I,  took  place  B.C.  734  :  the  date  of  vii.  i — ix.  7  will  thus 
be  c.  B.C.  735-34.  Sennacherib's  invasion,  to  the  period  of  which 
X.  5 — xii.  seems  to  the  present  writer  to  belong,  took  place  in 
B.C.  701  :  even,  however,  should  this  prophecy,  as  Dillmann, 
for  instance,  supposes,  belong  to  the  reign  of  Sargon,  it  will 
still  be  subsequent  to  B.C.  722,  and  thus  many  years  later  than 
vii.  I — ix.  7. 

2  Is.  X.  28-34.  ^  Is.  xi.  I- 10. 

^  Duhm,  Theologie  dcr  Prophdcn  (1875),  p.  168. 


THE  IDEALS  OF  THE  PROPHETS.       6$ 

world.  It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  the  chron- 
o\ogy  (where  it  can  be  ascertained)  of  Isaiah's  pro- 
phecies ;  for  it  assists  us  to  understand  the  true 
nature  of  his  ideas.  It  shows  us  that  though  attached 
in  one  sense  to  contemporary  occurrences,  they  are 
in  another  sense  independent  of  time.  They  reappear 
in  a  new  and  more  developed  form  after  the  occasion 
out  of  which  they  arose  had  passed  by :  they  form 
part  of  his  permanent  intellectual  creed  ;  though  he 
seems  to  expect  for  them  an  immediate  realization, 
the  postponement,  so  far  from  destroying  his  hopes, 
invigorates  and  renews  them.  From  the  prospect  of 
his  nation's  ideal  future,  sometimes  with,  sometimes 
without,  the  central  figure  of  the  ideal  King,  he  draws, 
in  the  days  of  his  country's  sorest  trial,  consolation 
and  strength.'^ 

A  third  feature  in  Isaiah's  conception  of  the  future 
attaches  itself  immediately  to  the  thought  expressed 
in  the  text.  He  has  a  vivid  consciousness  of  the 
position  to  be  ultimately  assumed  in  the  world  by 
the  religion  of  Israel.  He  contemplates,  not  merely, 
like  Amos,  the  enforced  subjection  of  the  neighbour- 
ing nations  to  David's  successors  ;  he  contemplates 
the  homage  and  allegiance  offered  by  them  spon- 
taneously to  Israel's  faith.  In  the  passage  from  one 
of  his  earliest  prophecies  which  I  have  already  quoted, 
he  represents  to  us  the  nations  streaming  to  Zion  as 
their  spiritual  metropolis  ;  and  later  he  views  in 
succession  one  nation  after  another,  Moab,  Ethiopia, 

^  E.^q^.  Is.  ix.  1-7,  xxix.  20-24,  >^>^>^-  19-26,  xxxiii.  5,  6,  13-24. 

F 


66  SERMON   III. 

Egypt,  Tyre,^  incorporated  in  the  future  kingdom  of 
God.  The  thought  is  most  distinctly  expressed  in 
his  prophecy  on  Egypt :  not  only  are  the  symbols 
of  Jehovah's  worship  established  in  that  country,  but 
there  is  a  highway  between  Egypt  and  Assyria,  and 
the  two  nations,  engaged  then  in  deadly  hostility, 
pass  freely  together  along  it,  doing  homage  with 
Israel  itself  to  Israel's  God.^ 

Such  are  the  three  principal  developments  which 
the  truth  of  Israel's  future  received  in  Isaiah's  hands. 
He  delineates  with  a  distinctness  and  emphasis  un- 
known before  its  ethical  characteristics  ;  he  exhibits 
in  its  completeness  (for  subsequent  prophets  added 
but  little  to  it)  the  portrait  of  the  ideal  King  ;  and  he 
insists,  with  a  generous  and  far-seeing  catholicity, 
upon  the  essential  universalism  of  the  national  faith. 

My  third  typical  illustration  is  drawn  from  the 
great  prophecy  of  Israel's  restoration,  which  occupies 
the  last  twenty-seven  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 
Here  Israel's  future  is  conceived  under  an  entirely 
new  aspect.  The  figure  of  the  Messianic  King  is 
absent,  and  there  appears  instead  the  figure  of  the 
ideal  nation.  Israel,  no  longer  viewed  as  an  aggregate 
of  isolated  members,  but  grasped  as  a  whole,  is  drama- 
tized as  an  individual,  in  whom  the  essential  charac- 
teristics of  the  people  are  concentrated,  and  who 
stands  before  us  realizing  in  his  own  person  its 
purposes  and  aims.     The  basis  of  the  personification 

^  Is.  ii.  2-4,  xvi.  4-5,  xviii.  7,  xix.  19-25,  xxiii.  18. 
'^   Is.  xix,  23. 


THE   IDEALS    OF   THE    PROPHETS.  6/ 

is  the  prophetic  office  of  the  nation.  Israel  has  been 
called  of  God  in  its  ancestor  Abraham,  has  received 
from  Him  a  definite  commission  and  work,  and  is  now 
honoured  by  Him  with  the  title,  implying-  trust  and 
confidence  on  the  one  side,  devotion  and  loyalty  on 
the  other,  of  His  servant.^  The  conception  thus 
formed  is  not,  however,  limited  to  the  representation 
of  Israel,  as  it  was  in  the  past  ;  it  is  invested  by  the 
prophet  with  an  independent  being,  and  projected  by 
him,  as  a  truly  ideal  form,  upon  the  future.  And  so 
vivid  is  the  personification,  that  it  assumes  the  char- 
acter of  an  Individual,  who  reproduces  in  his  own 
person  the  salient  characteristics  of  the  nation.  This 
individual  has  a  mission,  not  to  his  own  people  merely, 
but  to  the  world  :  "  It  is  a  small  thing  that  thou 
shouldest  be  my  servant  to  raise  up  the  tribes  of 
Jacob,  and  to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel ;  I  will 
also  give  thee  for  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  that  my 
salvation  may  be  even  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth."  - 
He  is  thus  the  instrument  for  communicating  the 
truth  possessed  by  Israel  to  the  world.  In  his  work 
as  prophet,  he  will  encounter  contumely  and  oppo- 
sition :  but  he  will  not  flinch;  the  mystery  of  suffering 
must  be  exemplified  in  him  ;  and  though  innocent 
himself,  he  will  sacrifice  his  life  for  the  relief  and 
benefit  of  others.  But  this  is  not  the  end.  He  lives 
again,  a  new  and  glorified  life,  in  which  the  travail  of 
his  soul  is  no  longer  unrewarded  ;  his  work  prospers 

\  Is.  xli.  8-IO,  xliii.  1-2,  xliv.  i,  2. 
2  Is,  xlix.  6  (cf.  xlii.  6-7). 


6S  SERMON    III. 

in  his  hands  ;  he  takes  his  place  beside  the  great  ones 
of  the  earth,  and  whereas  before  all  were  shocked  at 
the  sight  of  his  humiliation,  the  world  itself  will  now 
stand  amazed  at  the  spectacle  of  his  exaltation.^ 
Israel,  as  the  recipient  of  prophetic  illumination,  and 
the  bearer  of  a  message  to  mankind,  is  here  concen- 
trated in  an  ideal  figure,  who  exhibits  in  their  per- 
fection the  typical  excellences  of  the  nation,  and 
realizes  in  their  integrity  its  ideal  aims.  Nor  is  it  an 
abstract  character  which  the  prophet  thus  depicts ; 
his  own  warmth  of  feeling  and  imaginative  sympathy 
are  reflected  in  it ;  it  is  human  in  its  completeness  ; 
it  speaks  in  accents  of  sweetness  and  pathos;  it  shows 
no  deficiency  in  strength  and  decision,^  yet  the  at- 
tributes of  sympathy,  tenderness,  and  resignation 
predominate;^  for  a  moment  it  is  disheartened,  but 
is  quickly  re-assured  ;  ^  unobtrusively  but  surely  it 
accomplishes  its  ends.^  Such  is  the  personality  upon 
which,  in  the  mind  of  the  great  prophet  of  the  exile, 
the  future  alike  of  Israel  and  the  world  depends.'^ 
These,  then,   are   a   few   of  those   auguries  of  the 

1  Is.  xlii.  1-7,  xlix.  1-9,  1.  4-9,  lii.  13 — liii.  12. 

2  Is.  1.  7  f.         2  l^^i_  I — 2,  liii.  7.         *  xlix.  4.         ^  xlii.  2-4. 

^  The  thoughts  expressed  in  this  and  the  preceding  paragraphs 
have  been  developed  by  the  writer  more  fully  in  his  volume, 
Isaz'a/i,  his  life  and  tivies^  and  the  writings  which  bear  his  riame^ 
in  the  series  entitled  Men  of  the  Bible:  comp.  pp.  40-42,  94  f., 
110-114,  175-180.  On  the  figure  of  Jehovah's  ideal  servant 
(of  which  it  is  not  easy  to  gain  a  perfectly  consistent  picture), 
much  that  is  helpful  and  suggestive  will  be  found  in  A.  B. 
Davidson's  study  in  the  Expositor,  1884,  Nov.  p.  350  ff.,  Dec.  p. 
430  ff.;  comp.  also  the  remarks  of  Dillmann,  in  his  commentary 
on  Isaiah  (1890),  p.  472  f. 


THE  IDEALS  OF  THE  PROPHETS.       69 

future,  which  are  the  unique  creation  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  which  through  a  succession  of  ages 
ministered  to  the  consolation,  and  sustained  the  faith, 
of  the  Israehtish  nation.  Have  they  failed  of  their 
accomplishment  ?  We,  whose  privilege  it  is  to  be 
born  in  the  Messianic  age,  are  witnesses  of,  at  least, 
the  initial  stages  of  their  fulfilment.  In  the  Gospel 
the  principles  determining  the  history  of  Israel  are 
unfolded  and  matured  :  it  is  upon  this  larger  and 
firmer  ground,  and  not  by  the  fragile  aid  of  doubtful 
or  mistranslated  texts,  that  the  unity  of  the  two 
Testaments  is  to  be  maintained.  In  the  empire 
exercised  by  Christ  over  the  minds  of  men,  we  re- 
cognize the  transfigured  kingdom  of  David.  In  the 
new  life  conferred  by  union  with  Him,  in  the  gifts  of 
the  Spirit,  as  eloquently  summed  up  by  St.  PauV  we 
recognize  that  transformation  of  the  individual  char- 
acter and  of  society,  which  formed  Isaiah's  inspiring 
ideal.  By  the  diffusion  of  the  faith  of  Christ  through- 
out the  world,  the  catholicity  of  the  prophets'  visic^ns 
receives  its  justification.  The  very  words  of  the 
commission  addressed  to  St.  Paul  in  the  Acts,  are 
borrowed  from  those  in  which  the  world-wide  mission 
of  the  individualized  people  is  described  in  the  second 
part  of  Isaiah  ;  ^  for  in  the  work  inaugurated  by  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  the  "  Righteous  Servant"  first 
accomplishes  this  part  of  his  office.  In  His  own  life 
and    sufferings,  the  Redeemer  realizes  the  character 

1  Gal.  iii.  22,  23,  Col.  iii.  12-14. 

2  Acts  xiii.  47  ;  Is.  xlix.  6. 


70  SERMON    III. 

sketched,  as  I  have  endeavoured  to  show,  with  such 
completeness  and  power,  in  the  same  chapters ;  and 
the  portrait  which  on  the  one  hand  reflects,  as  in  a 
miniature,  the  best  and  truest  features  of  the  Israeh'tish 
nation,  is,  on  the  other  hand,  found  to  be  a  prefigure- 
ment  of  the  human  personahty  of  Christ.  In  the 
fuifihiient  it  was  seen  how  the  two  characters,  that 
of  the  ideal  King,  or  Messiah,  and  that  of  the  ideal 
Prophet  or  Sufferer — which  are  distinct,  and  never 
approximate,  in  the  Old  Testament, — could  be  com- 
bined in  one  person.^  In  Christ  as  King,  and  Christ 
as  Prophet,  the  Founder  and  Head  of  a  new  social 
state — for  the  aspects  of  His  work  as  Priest  would 
carry  me  too  far  to-day — the  hope  of  Israel,  which 
but  for  His  advent,  had  been  as  an  illusion  or  a  dream, 
finds  its  consummation  and  its  reward. 

But  the  change  was  neither  so  rapid  nor  so 
complete  as  the  prophets  themselves  seem  to  have 
expected.  Long  centuries  passed,  and  Israel  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  extinction,  before  the  Child  who,  as 
Isaiah  and  Micah  represent,  was  to  save  his  country 
from  Assyria,,  appeared.  In  particular  the  transform- 
ation of  human  life  remains  still  a  potentiality  not 
realized.  Even  where  the  wheat  appears  to  abound, 
the  tares  are  mingled  with  it.  Whether  indeed  it 
will  ever  be  different  while  the  present  order  of 
things  continues  upon  earth  we  cannot  say ;  the  most 
dazzling  visions  of  the  prophets  are  indeed  localized 
upon  this  earth  ;  their  centre  is  the  earthly,  though 
^  Comp.  the  writer's  Isaiah^  p.  i8o. 


THE   IDEALS   OF   THE    PROPHETS.  7 1 

glorified,  Zion  :  ^  but  in  the  New  Testament  the  vista 
ends  elsewhere ;  and  there  only,  perchance,  their  final 
consummation  is  to  be  souglit.  Let  us  endeavour  by 
the  grace  of  Christ,  and  in  the  light  of  His  example, 
to  realize  the  ideal  as  completely  as  we  are  able  in 
ourselves.  Let  us,  by  maintaining  and  promoting, 
as  well  in  the  secular  as  the  religious  life — for  both 
are  comprehended  in  the  Messianic  ideal — an  elevated 
standard  of  action,  contribute  as  we  can  towards  dif- 
fusing in  the  world  the  blessings  which  flow  from  the 
inheritance  of  Abraham. 

^  See,  for  instance,  Is.  iv.  3,  5,  xxv.  6-8  ('in  this  mountain"), 
xxxiii.  20,  21,  liv.  11-14,  Ix.  1-22,  Ixii.  i,  Jer.  iii,  14  f.,  xxxiii.  16, 
Ezek.  xlviii.  ;^S}  ^^-  Comp.  Prof.  A.  B,  Davidson's  Esekiel,  pp. 
288-90. 


SERMON     IV.i 

GROWTH  OF  BELIEF  IN  A    FUTURE  STATE. 

2    Tim.  i.   lo :    "  Who  abolished   death,  and  brought  life  and 
incoiTuption  to  light  through  the  Gospel.'' 

I  PROPOSE  to  take  as  my  subject  this  afternoon  the 
doctrine  of  a  future  state,  as  it  was  current  in  Jewish 
circles,  before,  and  immediately  following,  the 
Christian  era.  I  shall,  firstly,  exhibit,  as  time  will 
permit,  the  eschatology  of  our  main  pre-Christian 
authority,  the  apocryphal  Book  of  Enoch  :  I  shall, 
secondly,  exemplify  the  eschatological  interpretation 
of  the  Old  Testament,  from  the  Jewibh  Targums  ; 
and,  in  conclusion,  I  shall  consider  briefly  the  results 
thus  obtained  in  their  bearing  upon  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament. 

I  may  be  permitted  to  premise  shortly,  what  I 
should  have  been  glad  to  develop  at  length,  the 
stages  through  which  the  doctrine  had  passed  before 
the  close  of  the  Old  Testament  canon.    The  ordinary 

1  Preached  at  St.  Mary's,  on  Sunday,  March  6,  1887,  being 
one  of  the  sermons,  preached  annually  before  the  University, 
on  the  foundation  of  the  late  Dr.  Macbride,  Principal  of 
Magdalen  Hall,  and  Lord  Almoner's  Professor  of  Arabic,  upon 
"  The  Jewish  Interpretation  of  Prophecy." 


GROWTH   OF    BELIEF    IN   A   FUTURE   STATE.      y ^ 

belief  on  the  subject  of  a  future  life,  shared  by  'the 
ancient  Hebrews,  was  not  that  the  spirit  after  death 
ceased  to  exist/  but  that  it  passed  into  the  under- 
world, Sheol,  the  "  meeting-place,"  as  Job  describes  it, 
"  for  all  living,"  ^  as  well  for  the  tyrant  King  of 
Babylon,  at  whose  downfall  the  earth  rejoiced,-^  as  for 
Jacob,  or  Samuel,  or  David,^  where  it  entered  upon  a 
shadowy,  half-conscious  existence,  devoid  of  interest 
and  occupation,  and  not  worthy  of  the  name  of 
"  life  "  ^ : — "  For  Shcol  cannot  praise  thee,  death  cannot 
celebrate  thee  :  they  that  go  down  into  the  pit  cannot 
hope  for  thy  faithfulness."  ^  But  the  darkness  which 
thus  shrouded  man's  hereafter  was  not  unbroken  in 
the  Old  Testament  ;  and  there  are  three  lines  along 
which  the  way  is  prepared  for  the  fuller  revelation 
brotlg+rt  by  the  Gospel.  There  is,  firstly,  the  limit- 
ation of  the  power  of  death  set  forth  by  the  prophets, 
in  their  visions  of  a  glorified,  but  yet  earthly,  Zion  of 
the  future :  "  For  as  the  days  of  a  tree  shall  be  the 
days  of  my  people,  and  my  chosen  shall  long  enjoy 
the  work  of  their  hands."  ^  There  is,  secondly,  the 
conviction  uttered  by  individual  Psalmists  that  their 
close  fellowship  with  God  implies  and  demands  that 

^  See,  e.g.   i  Sam.  xxviii.  15.  ^  Job  xxx.  23. 

3  Is.  xiv.  8, 9,  15  :  comp.  Ezek.  xxxii.  18-32:  also  Job  iii.  13-19. 

^  Gen.  xxxvii.  35  (sec  R.V.  7narg.,  and  cf.  xliv.  29),  i  Sam. 
xxviii.  15,  2  Sam.  xii.  23. 

^  See  Note  A  (p.  95). 

^  Is.  xxxviii.  18  (Hezekiah's  song)  :  similarly  Ps.  vi.  5,  xxx.  9, 
Ixxxviii.  10-12,  cxv.  17  ("The  dead  pr.iise  not  Jah,  neither  any 
that  go  down  into  silence"  :  with  ''  silence,"  comp.  Ps.  xciv.  17). 

7  See  iNote  13  (p.  95). 


74  SERMON    IV. 

they  will  themselves  personally  be  superior  to  death  : 
"  My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth ;  but  God  is  the 
strength  of  my  heart  and  my  portion  for  ever."  ^ 
And,  thirdly,  we  meet  with  the  idea  of  a  resurrection, 
though  rather  at  first  as  a  hope  than  as  a  dogma,  and 
with  the  limitation  that  it  is  restricted  to  Israel. 
"  Let  thy  dead  live  !  let  my  dead  bodies  arise  !  "  cries 
the  dwindled  nation  in  its  extremity  ;  and  the 
prophet  forthwith  utters  the  jubilant  response  : 
"Awake  and  sing,  ye  that  dwell  in  the  dust ;  for  thy 
dew  is  as  the  dew  of  lights,  and  the  earth  shall  cast 
forth  the  Shades."^  But  the  hope  thus  triumphantly 
expressed  is  limited  by  the  context  to  Israel ;  ^  and 
the  same  limitation  is  apparent  in  the  vision  of  the 
dry  bones  in  Ezekiel  xxxvii."*  Even  in  Dan.  xii.  2, 
the  passage  which  speaks  most  distinctly,  and  teaches 
also  a  resurrection  of  the  wicked,  the  terms  are  still 
not  universal :  "  And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting 
life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt."  ^ 
But  this  verse  adds,  for  the  first  time,  the  idea  of  a 
future, retribution,  which  also  may  be  signified  by  the 

^  Ps.  Ixxiii.  26  (comp.  v.  24^)  ;  cf.  xvi.  10  f.  (R.V,),  xvii.  15, 
xlix.  15  ;  Job  xix.  26.  See  the  Commentary  of  Delitzsch  on  the 
passages  from  the  Psalms,  or  Kirkpatrick,  The Psahns  {Book  /.), 
in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools,  p.  Ixxvii  f  ;  and  A.  B. 
Davidson's  Commentary  on  Job  (in  the  same  series)  ^?^//^^.,and 
p.  291  ii. 

2  Is.  xxvi.  19  (post-exilic).     See  Note  C  (p.  96). 

3  Observe  that  the  foes  of  Israel  are  without  hope  of  a 
resurrection  {z>.  14) :  comp.  Jer.  11.  39,  57. 

^  See  V.  \\.  ^  See  Note  D  (p.  96). 


GROWTH   OF   P.ELIEF   IN    A   FUTURE   STATE.      75 

^'judgment,"  to  which  the  Preacher,  in   Ecclesiastes, 
more  than  once  solemnly  alludes.^ 

Such  is  the  point  at  which  the  Old  Testament 
leaves  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life.  I  proceed  to  trace 
the  main  developments  which  the  doctrine  underwent 
at  the  hands  of  the  Jews  before  the  time  of  Christ. 
One  feature  which  at  once  strikes  us  is  that  it  is 
brought  into  an  intimate  connection  with  the  de- 
veloped doctrine  of  the  Messiah,  to  which  the  same 
period  gave  birth.  There  is  no  passage  in  the  Old 
Testament,  in  which  such  a  connection  is  asserted, 
at  least  explicitly.^  But  in  the  centuries  immediately 
preceding  the  Christian  era,  the  Messianic  idea 
assumed  a  new  prominence,  and  was  presented  under 
fresh  forms,  among  which  were  some  professing  an 
eschatological  significance.  When  Judah  fell  under 
Greek  influences,  and  morally  as  well  as  politically 
the  supremacy  of  Hellenism  began  to  assert  itself, 
those  who  still  remained  faithful  to  the  religion  of 
their  fathers  found  themselves  engaged  in  a  new 
struggle,  now  with  aggressive  irreligion  without,  now 
with  religious  indifferentism  within.^  Their  hearts 
pondered  over  the  ancient  prophecies,  so  strangely 
unfulfilled,  of  Israel's  future  greatness  and  glory  : 
from  the  sufferings  and  disappointments  of  the 
present,  they  turned  to  the  prospects  of  their 
realization  in  the  future  ;  or  sought  for  compensation 
in  the  hope  of  a  glorified  life  hereafter.     The  Book  of 

1  See  Note  E  (p.  96).         2  See  Note  F  (p.  97). 
3  See  I  Mace.  i.  10-64. 


"J^  SERMON    IV. 

Daniel  is  the  first  known  literary  work  in  which 
reflections  such  as  these  took  shape  :  ^  but  in  the 
hands  of  subsequent  writers  the  same  mode  of 
representation  was  developed  in  far  greater  detail. 
Taking  as  their  basis  the  well-known  prophecy  of 
Daniel,  which  unites  the  figure  of  a  super-human 
Messiah  with  the  promise  of  a  kingdom  conferred 
upon  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,^  these  writers 
combined  with  it  elements  derived  from  other,  more 
ancient,  prophecies  of  the  ideal  future  of  their 
nation  ;  they  imagined  the  time  when  the  heatlien 
domination  under  which  they  laboured  would  be 
overthrown,  and  the  power  which  it  now  wielded 
transferred  to  the  people  of  God  :  under  concrete 
images  of  wonderful  attractiveness  and  force,  they 
pictured  the  Messiah  triumphing  with  His  people  over 
their  foes,  or  presiding,  as  the  vice-gerent  of  the 
Almighty,  at  the  judgment  of  quick  and  dead.  The 
germs  of  that  mode  of  representation,  known  as  the 
**  Apocalyptic,"  ^  appear  in  the  writings  of  the  earlier 
post-exilic  prophets;"*  but  set  forth  upon  a  scale 
designed  to  meet  effectively  the  needs  of  the  time, 
and  to  provide  a  satisfaction  in  the  future  for  the 
hopes  and  expectations  unaccomplished  in  the  present, 

^  See,  in  particular,  Dan.  ii.  35,  44-45,  cb.  vii.,  viii.,  x.-xii. 
The  book  of  Daniel  appears  to  date  from  the  beginning  of  the 
persecution  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  :  comp.  the  writer's  Intro- 
duction^ ch.  ix.,  and,  on  its  purport  and  aim,  pp.  477-4S1. 

2  Dan.  vii.  13  (R.V.),  14,  22,  27. 

3  See  Note  G  (p.  97). 

^  Comp.  Zcch.  i.-viii.,  xii.-xiv.,  Joel  iii. 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN    A   FUTURE    STATE.      7/ 

it  belongs  essentially,  as  has  been  explained,  to  a  later 
age. 

The  most  remarkable  and,  next  to  the  book  of 
Daniel,  the  earliest  example  of  this  type  of  literature 
is  the  Apocalypse  of  Enoch.  The  Book  of  Enoch, 
as  a  whole,  is  known  only  through  the  medium  of  an 
Ethiopic  version ;  ^  it  is  accessible  now  to  English 
readers  in  the  useful  edition  of  Prof  Schodde.^  Into 
critical  questions  connected  with  its  structure,  there  is 
no  occasion  for  me  to  enter :  if  it  be  not  all  the  work 
of  one  hand,  it  breathes  throughout  the  same  spirit ; 
and  the  elements  composing  it  are  assigned  by  the 
great  majority  of  critics  to  the  second  and  first 
centuries  B.C.^  Enoch,  it  is  said,  "  walked  with  God  "  ; 
and  the  book  consists  of  a  series  of  visions,  or 
revelations,  supposed  to  have  been  received  by  the 
patriarch,  and  opening  to  him  the  mysteries  of  the 
invisible  world.  The  general  scope  of  the  book,  the 
announcement,  viz.  of  future  judgment,  is  declared 
in    the   opening    chapter,    constructed    largely   upon 

'  Published  first  by  Archbishop  L-iurence,  from  a  MS.  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  in  1838  ;  and  again,  with  a  collation  of  other 
MSS.,  by  Dillmann  in  1851. 

2  Andover,  U.S.A.  (1882),  with  introduction  and  notes,  based 
(naturally)  upon  what  the  author  justly  terms  the  standard 
edition  (in  German)  of  Uillmann  (Leipzig,  1853).  Laurence's 
transhtion  (recently  re-printed)  is  not  always  trustworthy.  A 
new  translation,  with  notes,  embodying  many  various  readings, 
from  MSS.  not  known  at  the  time  when  Dillmann's  edition  was 
published,  is  understood  to  be  in  preparation  by  the  Rev.  R.  H. 
Charles. 

^  Schiirer,  Gesch.  dcs  Jiid.  Volkes  im  Zcitalter  Jesu  Christi^ 
ii.  (1886),  p.  620  f. 


yS  SERMON    IV. 

reminiscences  of  the  prophets,  and  containing  the 
passage  cited  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude.i  There  follows 
an  account  of  the  first  great  act  of  judgment,  executed 
upon  the  rebel  angels  who  seduced  the  daughters  of 
men,  and  introduced  upon  earth  the  knowledge  of 
corrupt  arts.  After  this,  Enoch,  under  the  guidance 
of  an  angel,  travels  over  various  regions  of  the  earth, 
and  learns  the  secrets  of  nature,  particularly  such  as 
stand  related  to  the  moral  government  of  the  world. 
The  central  part  of  the  book,  chapters  37 — 71, 
contain  the  sections  which  deal  most  directly  with  the 
final  Messianic  judgment,  and  describe  the  person 
and  office  of  the  Judge.  In  the  closing  chapters  of 
the  book,  after  a  long  allegorical  description  of  the 
history  of  Israel,  the  author,  addressing  his  con- 
temporaries, sums  up,  in  tones  of  fervour  and  moral 
earnestness,  the  practical  lessons  which  his  revelations 
suggest.  This  application  of  the  belief  in  a  future 
state,  as  a  motive  to  action,  marks  the  more  advanced 
stage  which  the  doctrine  has  reached.  Nothing  of 
the  kind  occurs  in  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament. 

I  may  now  describe  the  eschatology  of  the  book. 
In  the  first  part,  we  read  chiefly  of  the  fallen  angels, 
and  of   their   punishment  ;    in    accordance  with    the 

1  Jude  14-15.  See  Enoch  i.  9:  "And  behold  he  cometh 
with  ten  thousands  of  holy  ones,  to  execute  judgment  upon 
them ;  and  he  will  destroy  the  ungodly,  and  contend  with  all 
flesh  concerning  all  that  the  sinners  and  the  godless  have  done 
against  him  and  committed."  Comp.,  for  the  elements  on  which 
the  representation  is  based,  Dcut.  xxxiii.  2,  Jer.  xxv.  31,  Is.  xvi. 
16,  Dan.  vii.  10. 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN    A   FUTURE    STATE.      79 

allusion  in  Jude/  they  are  represented  as  bound  in 
chains  and  darkness,  awaiting  the  judgment  of  the 
Great  Day.^  But  we  hear  likewise  of  the  abode  in 
which  the  spirits  of  the  departed  pass  the  intermediate 
state ;  and  in  the  far  West,  Enoch  visits  in  his  travels 
the  fair  and  secluded  resting-places  reserved  for  the 
spirits  of  the  righteous  ;  and  not  far  thence  beholds 
those  other  places  in  which  the  souls  of  the  wicked, 
in  pain  and  woe,  expect  their  final  judgment.^  Else- 
where, allusion  is  made  to  a  "  garden  of  righteousness," 
or  "  of  the  righteous,"^  situate  in  the  East,  the  relation 
of  which  to  the  abodes  just  described  is  not  distinctly 
indicated,  but  which  appears  to  be  the  prototype  of 
what  was  afterwards  known  as  the  "  Garden  of  Eden  " 
(or  "  Paradise  "),  the  abode  of  the  faithful  departed. 
Resuming  his  travels,  Enoch  is  brought  to  the  Holy 
City,  Jerusalem,  and  notices  beside  it  a  deep  and 
sterile  valley.  He  inquires  what  it  is,  and  what 
purpose  it  subserves.  It  is  the  valley  of  Hinnom, 
Gchinnom,  better  known  under  its  Graecized  name, 
Gehenna.  "  This,"  said  the  angel  Uriel,^  "  this 
accursed  valley  is  for  those  who  will  be  accursed  to 
eternity,  and  here  will  be  assembled  all  those  who 
have  uttered  with  their  mouths  unseemly  words 
against  God,  and  spoken  insolently  of  his  glory  ;  here 
will  they  be  assembled,  and  here  will  be  their  judg- 
ment. And  in  the  last  days  will  the  spectacle  of  a 
just   judgment   upon  them    be  exhibited    before  the 

1  Jude  6.         2  X.  5-6,  12-14.         ^  Ch.  xxii. 

'»  xxxii.  3,  Ixxvii.  3,  Ix.  8,  23,  Ixi.  I2.         ^  Ch.  xxvii. 


8o  SERMON    IV. 

righteous/  for  ever  and  ever  ;  and  for  this,  will  those 
who  have  obtained  mercy  bless  the  Lord  of  Glory, 
the  Eternal  King."  Such  is  the  earliest  description 
of  Gehenna,  as  a  place  of  torment.  The  locality  is 
not  idealized  :  it  is  the  actual  valley  beside  Jerusalem  ; 
and  the  idea  of  the  writer  appears  to  be  that  while 
the  Holy  City  will  be  the  capital  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  the  valley  close  at  hand  will  be  the 
perpetual  scene  of  the  punishment  of  the  wicked. 
This  idea  is  probably  an  extension  of  the  thought 
expressed  in  the  last  verse  of  the  book  of  Isaiah.^ 

The  resurrection  and  future  judgment  are  described 
principally  in  the  visions  in  the  central  part  of  the 
book.  I  will  quote  some  of  the  most  characteristic 
passages.  The  resurrection  is  no  longer  confined  to 
Israel,  it  is  universal — "And^  in  those  days  Sheol 
will  give  back  them  that  are  entrusted  to  it,  and 
Destruction  will  restore  that  which  it  owes.  And  he 
will  choose  from  among  them  the  just  and  the  holy  : 
for  the  day  has  come  when  they  shall  be  delivered. 
And  the  Chosen  One  " — such  is  the  title  bestowed  upon 
the  Messiah— "in  those  days  will  sit  upon  his  throne, 
and  all  the  hidden  things  of  wisdom  will  proceed  from 
the  thoughts  of  his  mouth :  for  the  Lord  of  spirits 

^  Cf.  xlviii,  9,  lo,  Ixii.  12. 

2  "And  they  (the  pilgrims  from  all  nations,  visiting  Jerusalem, 
V.  23)  shall  go  fonh,  and  look  upon  the  carcases  of  the  men 
that  have  transgressed  against  me  :  for  their  worm  shall  not  die, 
neither  shall  their  fire  be  quenched  \  and  they  shall  be  an 
abhorring  unto  all  flesh." 

3  li.  1-3. 


GROWTH    OP^   BELIEF   IN   A   FUTURE    STATE.      8 1 

has  given  it  to  him,  and  glcrificd  him."  "  And  ^  I 
saw  one  who  had  a  head  of  days " — i.  e.  a  head 
betokening  age — "and  his  head  was  white  hke  w^ool  : 
and  with  him  was  another,  whose  countenance  was 
as  the  appearance  of  a  man,  and  his  countenance  was 
full  of  grace,  as  one  of  the  holy  angels.  And  I  asked 
one  of  the  angels  who  went  with  me,  and  who  showed 
me  all  the  hidden  things  concerning  this  son  of  man, 
who  he  was,  and  whence  he  came,  and  why  he  goeth 
with  the  Head  of  Days  t  And  he  answered  and  said 
unto  me  :  This  is  the  son  of  man,  who  hath  justice, 
with  whom  righteousness  dwells,  and  who  reveals  the 
treasures  of  all  that  is  hidden,  because  the  Lord  of 
spirits  hath  chosen  him,  and  whose  portion  before  the 
Lord  of  spirits  exceedeth  all,  by  reason  of  righteous- 
ness, unto  eternity.  And  this  son  of  man,  whom 
thou  hast  seen,  will  arouse  kings  and  mighty  men 
from  their  couches,  and  the  strong  from  their  thrones, 
and  will  loosen  the  bands  of  the  strong,  and  break 
the  teeth  of  the  sinners.  .  .  .  And  he  will  thrust 
aside  the  face  of  the  strong,  and  shame  shall  cover 
them  :  darkness  shall  be  their  dwelling-place,  and 
worms  shall  be  their  couch  ;  neither  shall  they  have 
any  hope  of  arising  from  their  couches,  because  they 
exalt  not  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  spirits."  The 
deeds  done  in  the  flesh  are  inscribed  in  books,^  which 
are  opened  on  the  day  of  final  judgment — the  "day 
of  the  great  judgment,"  as  it  is  termed  "^ — before  God 

1  xlvi.  1-3,  5-6.  ^  xcviii.  7,  8. 

3  l.xxxiv.  4,  xciv.  9,  xcviii.  10,  xcix.  15,  civ.  5;  also  "the  great 

G 


S2  SERMON    IV. 

and  Mis  Messiah  :  "  And  ^  he  sat  upon  the  throne  of 
his  glory,  and  the  sum  of  the  judgment  was  given 
unto  him,  unto  the  son  of  man  ;  and  he  causes  the 
sinners  to  be  destroyed,  and  to  perish  from  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  those  also  which  have  seduced 
the  world  :  they  shall  be  bound  with  chains,  and 
imprisoned  in  their  assembling  place  of  destruction. 
And  all  evil  shall  vanish  before  him  and  depart  :  but 
the  word  of  that  son  of  man  shall  abide  before  the 
Lord  of  spirits."  And  so  the  tyrant  kings,  who, 
when  it  is  too  late,  begin  to  profess  repentance,  are 
driven  forth  from  the  judge's  presence,  his  sword  not 
departing  from  their  midst.^ 

As  regards  the  future  lot  of  the  redeemed,  the 
representations  contained  in  the  central  part  of  the 
book  appear  as  the  most  elevated.  In  the  first  part 
their  condition  is  conceived  rather  as  one  of  material 
blessing :  it  is  a  state  of  felicity  upon  earth  ;  nature 
is  generous  with  her  gifts  ;  not  immortality,  but  long 
life,  secured  for  the  "elect,"  after  the  final  judgment, 
by  the  fruit  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  and  undisturbed  by 
sorrow,  or  mourning,  or  pain,  is  the  prospect  held  out 
by  the  seer  to  the  faithful.^     In  the  central  part  of 

day  of  judgment,"  X.  6,  xxii.  i  r,  or  "  the  great  day,"  liv.  6.  "  The 
great  judgment  "  is  also  mentioned  xvi.  i,  xix.  i,  xxii,  4,  xxv.  4, 
c.  4,  ciii.  8. 

1  Ixix.  27,  29.  2  ixiii.  I,  II. 

^  xxiv.  3-5,  xxv.  1-5.  The  source  of  such  representations 
may  be  seen  in  Gen.  ii.  9,  iii.  22,  Is.  xxxv.  10,  Ixv.  19-23. 
With  the  "tree  of  hfe  "  comp.  also  4  Ezra  (Engl.  2  Ezra)  viii. 
52,  Rev.  ii.  7,  xxii.  2  (Ezck.  xlvii.  12),  14,  19. 


GKOWTII   OF   BELIEF   IN   A   FUTURE    STATE.      S^ 

the  book,  the  ideal  is  higher  and  more  spiritual. 
Heaven  is  no  longer  separate  from  earth  ;  tluy  are 
merged,  and  form  the  home  of  one  great  community, 
with  God  and  the  Messiah  in  their  midst :  "  And  ^  here 
saw  I  another  vision  :  the  dwellings  of  the  just,  and 
the  resting-places  of  the  holy.  .  .  .  And  I  saw  their 
dwellings  under  the  wings  of  the  Lord  of  spirits  ; 
and  all  the  just  and  the  elect  before  him  are  adorned 
with  the  light  of  fire,  and  their  mouths  are  filled  with 
praise,  and  their  lips  adore  the  name  of  the  Lord  of 
spirits,  and  righteousness  ceaseth  not  before  him." 
Again,  "  And  ^  in  that  day  will  I  cause  my  Chosen 
One  (the  Messiah)  to  dwell  among  them,  and  I  will 
change  the  heaven  and  make  it  a  blessing  and  a  light 
for  ever,  and  I  will  change  the  earth  and  make  it  a 
blessing,  and  cause  mine  elect  to  dwell  upon  it  ;  but 
they  that  commit  sin  and  wrong  shall  not  tread 
therein."  *'  And  ^  the  Lord  of  spirits  will  dwell  over 
them  ;  and  they  shall  dwell  together  with  that  son  of 
man,  and  shall  eat,  and  lie  down,  and  rise  up  with 
him  to  all  eternity."  "  And^  the  just  shall  be  in  the 
light  of  the  sun,  and  the  elect  in  the  light  of  eternal 
life ;  and  there  shall  be  no  end  to  the  days  of  their 
life,  and  the  days  of  the  holy  shall  be  without  num- 
ber." The  phrase  "  eternal  life  "  ^  may  be  borrowed 
from    Dan.  xii.   2:    the   "age  (or  woM)  to   come,"'' 

1  xxxix.  4,  7.         -  xlv.  4,  5.         2  Ixii.  14.         ^  h'iii.  3. 

'  Also  xxxvii.  4,  xl.  9. 

•^  The  common  post-Biblical  Jewish  expression  for  the  future 
state  (t^BT  DViyn,  or,  in  Aramaic,  ^^.^'^.  ^^?J^)  :  so  for  instance 
in  the  Mishnah,  frequently.     See  also  below,  pp.  91,  92,  95, 


84  SERMON    IV. 

occurs  for  the  first  time  in  the  passage  I  am  about  to 
quote,  addressed  to  Enoch  in  another  vision.  "He^ 
calls  Peace  to  thee  in  the  name  of  the  age  to  come  ; 
for  thence  proceeds  peace  since  the  creation  of  the 
world;  and  thus  will  it  be  unto  thee  into  eternity, and 
from  eternity  unto  eternity.  And  all  who  in  future 
walk  in  thy  path  (thou  whom  righteousness  forsaketh 
not  for  ever),  their  dwelling-places  will  be  with  thee, 
and  they  will  not  be  separated  from  thee  in  eternity, 
and  from  eternity  to  eternity.'' 

On  the  other  hand,  the  punishment  allotted  to  the 
wicked  after  judgment  is  thus  described  : — "  Hence- 
forth ^  know  ye  that  all  your  violence  which  ye  do 
is  written  down  every  day  until  the  day  of  your 
judgment."  "  Woe  ^  to  you,  sinners,  when  ye  vex  the 
righteous,  on  the  day  of  sharp  pain,  and  burn  them 
with  fire  ;  it  shall  be  recompensed  to  you  according 
to  your  works.  Woe  to  you,  ye  perverse  of  heart,  ye 
that  are  vigilant  to  devise  evil :  fear  shall  come  upon 
you,  and  there  shall  be  none  to  save  you.  Woe  to 
you,  ye  sinners,  for  on  account  of  the  words  of  your 
mouth,  and  the  works  of  your  hands,  which  ye  have 
done  in  godlessness,  ye  shall  burn  in  a  lake  of  fiery 
flames."  And  elsewhere,  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  is  described  as  a  killing  of  their  souls — a 
phrase  which  does  not,  however,  imply  annihilation  : 
"  Their  ^  names  shall  be  blotted  out  of  the  books  of 
the  holy,  and  their  seed  shall  perish  for  ever  ;    and 

^  Ixxi.  15-16.  2  xcviii.  8.  '  c.  7-9. 

*  cviii.  3  :  cf.  xxii.  13,  xcix.  11  ;  also  liii.  5,  Ixii.  2^  Ixiii.  9,  11. 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN    A   FUTURE    STATE.      85 

their  souls  shall  be  killed  :  and  they  shall  cry  aloud 
and  lament  in  a  desolate  waste,  and  shall  burn  in  fire." 

Time  will  not  permit  me  to  dwell  upon  the  teach- 
ing of  other  writings  belonging  to  the  same  period. 
Their  examination,  however,  would  not  add  any 
substantial  feature  to  the  picture  already  obtained 
from  the  Book  of  Enoch.  Most  of  them,  indeed,  are 
far  less  explicit.  It  must  suffice,  then,  to  remark 
that  while  the  Book  of  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach, 
occupies  still  the  same  standpoint  as  the  Old  Testa- 
ment generally,^  and  regards  death  as  the  limit  of  all 
existence  worthy  of  the  name  of  "life,"  the  philosophic 
author  of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  teaches  expressly  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  a  future  state  of  reward 
and  punishment,-  and  that  the  so-called  Psalms  of 
Solomon,^  written  in  Palestine  when  the  Jews  were 
smarting  under  the  humiliation  which  they  suffered 
at  the  hands  of  Pompey,  affirm  distinctly  a  resurrec- 
tion :  "The  destruction  of  the  sinner  is  for  ever.  .  .  . 
But  they  that  fear  the  Lord  shall  rise  again  unto 
eternal  life  :  and  their  life  shall  be  in  the  light  of  the 
Lord,  and  it  shall  fail  no  more,"  ^ 

The  Jewish  Targums,  to  which  I  now  proceed,  are 

^  Cf.  Ecckis.  xiv.  16,  xvii.  27  f.  (see  p.  y2>'>  Note  6),xxii.  11,  xlvi. 
19  (coinp.  Jer.  li.  39,  57),  20  (comp.  i  S:im.  xxviii,  15  IT.),  xlviii. 
5.     In  xlviii.  1 1  the  text  and  sense  are  both  uncertain. 

2  ii.  23,  iii.  1-4  ("The  souls  of  the  ri^^hteous  are  in  the  hand 
of  God,''  &c.),  vi.  18,  20,  viii.  17,  xv.  3. 

^  See  Ryle  and  James,  Psalms  of  the  Pharisees^  co/nnionly 
called  tlic  Psalms  of  Solouion  ( 1 89 1 ). 

^  iii.  13-16  ;  cf.  xiii.  9-10,  xiv.  2,  6,  7,  xv.  13-15.  Comp. 
Ryle  and  James,  p.  li,  Iii. 


S6  SERMON    IV. 

Aramaic  versions  of  the  Old  Testament,  made  for 
the  use  of  the  Jews  when  Hebrew  had  ceased  to  be 
in  general  use  as  a  spoken  language.  They  were  not, 
indeed,  committed  to  writing  until  some  time  subse- 
quently to  the  Christian  era  ;  but  they  embody  inter- 
pretations which,  no  doubt,  originated  in  many  cases 
at  a  much  earlier  period.  Their  style  varies.  In 
historical  narrative,  it  is,  as  a  rule,  literal.  In  the 
Prophets  and  Psalms,  it  is  commonly  (though  not 
uniformly)  more  or  less  paraphrastic,  sometimes,  in- 
deed, even  to  the  perversion  of  the  sense.  Still,  even 
when  it  is  paraphrastic,  if  the  Targum  be  read  as  an 
application  or  adaptation  of  the  text,  rather  than 
as  a  strict  interpretation  of  it,  it  will  often  be  found 
to  contain  a  just  and  suggestive  thought.  In  the 
passages  which  I  shall  quote,  it  will  be  impossible  to 
consider  in  each  instance  how  far  the  interpretation 
is  a  just  one  or  not  ;  it  must  suffice  to  premise  gener- 
ally that  in  most  cases  the  reference  to  a  future  life 
does  not  apparently  lie  within  the  scope  of  the  text. 
It  may  be  observed  that  the  conceptions  which  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch  appear  in  the  process  of  formation, 
and  not  always  free  from  indistinctness,  appear  in  the 
Targums  as  more  complete,  and  clearly  defined.  It 
should  be  added,  that  there  are  grounds  for  regarding 
the  Tarorums  on  the  HajjioGfraoha  as  later  than  those 
of  either  Onkelos  on  the  Pentateuch,  or  of  Jonathan 
on  the  Prophets.^ 

^  The  last  two  probably  assumed  their  present  form  in  the 
third  or  fourth  century  A.u. 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN  A   FUTURE    STATE.      8/ 

The  resurrection  is  mentioned — Hos,  vi.  2  :  "  He 
will  quicken  us  for  the  days  of  consolation  which  are 
to  come :  in  the  day  when  the  dead  are  quickened  he 
will  raise  us  up,  and  we  shall  live  before  him."  xiv. 
7  (Heb.  8)  :  "  They  shall  be  gathered  from  among 
their  captivities  ;  they  shall  dwell  under  the  shadow  of 
their  Messiah  :  the  dead  shall  live,  and  prosperity 
shall  be  multiplied  in  the  land."  Isaiah  xxvi.  19 
(the  passage  already  quoted  as  actually  containing 
the  idea)  is  thus  paraphrased  :  "  Thou  art  he  that 
quickeneth  the  dead  ;  the  bones  of  their  corpses  thou 
raisest  up  ;  all  that  are  cast  down  in  the  dust  shall  live 
to  praise  thee  :  for  thy  dew  is  a  dew  of  light  to  them 
that  observe  the  law  ;  but  the  wicked,  unto  whom 
thou  hast  given  might,  but  who  have  transgressed 
thy  word,  thou  shalt  deliver  to  Gehenna."  xlii.  1 1  : 
"  Let  the  wilderness  utter  praise,  the  villages  that 
inhabit  the  wilderness  of  the  Arabians ;  let  the  dead 
utter  praise,  when  they  come  forth  from  their  long 
homes,  from  the  tops  of  the  rocks  let  them  lift  up 
their  voice."  xlv.  8  :  "  Let  the  heavens  do  service 
above,  and  the  clouds  pour  forth  abundance  :  let 
the  earth  open,  and  the  dead  live,  and  righteousness 
be  revealed  together."  And  from  the  Targum  on 
Zech.  xiv.  4  :  "At  that  time  the  Lord  shall  take  in 
his  hand  a  great  trumpet,  and  shall  blow  with  it  ten 
blasts  to  revive  the  dead  :  and  he  shall  be  revealed  at 
that  time  in  his  might  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  which 
is  before  Jerusalem,  on  the  East,  and  the  Mount  of 
Olives  shall  be  cleft  in  the  midst  thereof  toward  the 


88  SERMON    IV. 

East  and  toward  the  West."  The  sequel  may  be 
stated  in  the  words  of  a  later  Targum,  on  Cant.  viii. 
5  :  "When  the  dead  shall  live,  the  Mount  of  Olives 
shall  be  divided,  and  all  the  dead  of  Israel  shall  come 
forth  from  beneath  it." 

The  future  judgment  is  alluded  to  (though  not 
often  explicitly)  by  the  same  title  as  in  the  Book  of 
Enoch,  the  "  great  judgment  "  or  the  "  great  day."  Ps. 
1.  3  :  "  The  righteous  wilt  say  in  the  day  of  the  great 
judgment,  Our  God  shall  come  and  not  keep  silence." 
Josh.  vii.  25  :^  ''The  Lord  trouble  thee  this  day;  but 
in  the  day  of  the  great  judgment  thou  shalt  escape 
and  be  acquitted."  2  Sam.  xxiii.  7  :  "  Their  punish- 
ment is  not  by  the  hand  of  man,  but  they  will  be 
burnt  with  fire  :  they  will  be  burnt  when  the  tribunal 
of  the  great  judgment  shall  be  revealed,  to  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  judgment,  to  judge  the  world." 

The  second  death  (as  in  Rev.  ii.  11,  xx.  6,  14,  xxi. 
8),  corresponding  to  the  death  of  the  soul  in  Enoch, 
is  named,  Deut.  xxxiii.  6 :  "  Let  Reuben  live  in  the 
life  of  eternity,  and  not  die  the  second  death."  Is. 
Ixv.  15  :  "And  ye  shall  leave  your  name  for  a  curse 
unto  my  chosen,  and  the  Lord  shall  kill  you  with 
the  second  death."  Jer.  li.  39,  57,  where  the  prophet 
promises  that  Israel's  foes  shall  sleep  a  perpetual 
sleep,  and  not  awake:  ''And  they  shall  die  the 
second  death,  and  not  live  for  the  age  to  come."  ^ 

^  In  the  fragment  of  a  "Jerusalem"  Targum,  cited  on  the 
margin  of  the  Reucblin  Codex,  and  published  by  Lagarde, 
Propheiae  Chaldaice  (1872),  p.  vi,  lines  28-29. 

^  Add  Is.  xxii.   14  Targ.:  "Surely  this  iniquity  shall  not  be 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN    A   FUTURE    STATE.      89 

Mention  is  made  not  unfrequently  of  Gehenna,  and 
sometimes  the  opposite  lots  of  the  righteous  and 
wicked  are  contrasted.  Hosca  xiv.  9  (Heb.  10)  : 
"  The  righteous,  who  walk "  in  the  ways  of  God, 
"  shall  live  in  them  in  eternal  life ;  but  the  wicked 
who  walk  not  in  them  shall  be  delivered  to  Gehenna."  ^ 
Nahum  i.  8  end:  "And  his  enemies  he  will  deliver  to 
Gehenna."  2  Ps.  xlix.  9  (Heb.  10)  :  ''  That  he  should 
live  again  unto  eternal  life,  and  not  behold  the 
judgment  of  Gehenna."  Ps.  cxl.  10:  "Let  hot  burning 
coals  alight  upon  them  from  heaven  ;  let  him  cast 
them  into  the  fire  of  Gehenna  with  glowing  sparks, 
that  they  rise  not  again  unto  eternal  life."  ^  Is. 
xxxiii.  17:  "The  glory  of  the  Shekhinah  of  the 
eternal  King  in  his  majesty  shall  thine  eyes  behold  ; 
thou  shalt  see  and  behold  them  that  go  down  to  the 
land  of  Gehenna,"  where  the  Hebrew  says  simply, 
"  They  shall  see  a  land  of  distances "  (/.  e.  a  far- 
stretching  land).  Isa.  Ivii.  20  :  "  But  the  wicked  shall 
be  tossed  about  in  Gehenna,  like  the  troubled  sea. 


forgiven  you,  until  ye  die  the  second  death";  Is.  Ixv.  6  Targ.: 
"  Behold  it  is  written  before  me  :  I  will  not  give  you  a  respite  in 
life,  but  I  will  render  to  you  the  vengeance  of  your  sins,  and  I 
will  deliver  your  bodies  to  the  second  death."  See  also  Ps.  xlix. 
10  (Heb.  11)  in  the  Antwerp  Polyglott  of  1569  :  "  For  he  will  see 
the  wise  ones  of  wickedness  that  they  die  the  second  death,  and 
are  judged  in  Gehenna." 

1  Hebrew  text:  "The  just  shall  walk  in  them;  but  trans- 
gressors shall  fall  therein." 

^  Hebrew  text:  "Will  pursue  his  enemies  into  darkness" 
(of  the  people  of  Nineveh). 

^  See  Note  II  (p.  97). 


90  SERMON    IV. 

which  seeketh  to  be  at  rest,  but  is  not  able."  And  in 
the  last  verse  of  Isaiah,  where,  by  a  Rabbinical  device, 
of  which  other  examples  might  be  quoted,^  the  Hebrew 
word  rendered  "abhorring"  is  divided  into  two,  which 
arc  interpreted  to  mean  ''sufficiency  of  seeing":  "And 
they  shall  go  forth,  and  look  upon  the  carcases  of  the 
guilty  men  who  have  rebelled  against  my  word,  be- 
cause their  souls  shall  not  die,  and  their  fire  shall  not 
be  quenched  ;  but  the  wicked  shall  be  judged  in 
Gehenna,  until  the  righteous  shall  say  concerning 
them.  We  have  seen  enough." 

Paradise,  or,  to  use  the  Aram.aic  expression,^ 
the  "  Garden  of  Eden,"  is  but  seldom  named  in 
the  Targums.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  cite  two 
passages,  one  from  a  Targum  ^  (not  the  ordinary 
one)  on  Isa.  xlv.  7  ("  I  form  the  light  and  create 
darkness  ")  :  "  I  ordain  the  light  of  life  eternal  for  the 
righteous  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  create  the 
darkness  of  Gehenna  for  the  wicked "  ;  the  other 
from  that  on  the  Song  of  Songs,  where  the  "gar  en 
enclosed"  (Cant.  iv.  12)  is  interpreted  of  the  "  Garden 
of  Eden,  into  which  no  one  hath  authority  to  enter 
save  the  righteous,  whose  souls  are  conveyed  thither 
by  the  hand  of  angels."  More  commonly  the  Tar- 
gumists  are  content  to  give  expression  to  their  belief 
in  a  life  of  future  blessedness,  by  the  introduction, 
where  the  context  was  suitable,  of  the  phrase  "  in  the 

^  See  Note  I  (p.  97). 
2  Sec  Note  J  (p.  90). 

^  From  the  same  margin  of  the  Reuchlin  Codex  mentioned 
above  :  Lagarde,  /.  c.  p.  xxxi,  lines  22-23. 


GROWTH   OF   BELIEF   IN   A   FUTURE    STATE.      9 1 

age  (^r  world)  to  come,"  or  "eternal  life,"  sometimes 
contrasting  with  it  "  this  age  {or  world)."  Thus  Lev. 
xviii.  5  :  "  And  ye  shall  keep  my  statutes  and  my 
judgments,  which  if  a  man  do,  he  shall  live  in  the 
life  eternal."  i  Sam.  xxv.  29  :  "  Let  the  soul  of  my 
lord  be  hidden  in  the  treasury  of  eternal  life  before 
the  Lord  thy  God."  Isa.  iv.  3  :  "  And  it  shall  be  that 
he  that  is  left  shall  return  to  Zion,  and  he  that 
observeth  the  law  shall  be  established  in  Jerusalem  ; 
he  shall  be  called  holy  ;  every  one  that  is  v/ritten 
down  for  life  eternal  shall  see  the  consolation  of 
Jerusalem."  Isa.  Iviii.  11  :  "  And  the  Lord  shall 
guide  thee  continually,  and  shall  satisfy  thy  soul  in 
years  of  drought,  and  quicken  thy  body  in  life  eternal."  ^ 
More  frequently  in  the  later  Targums,  as  in  that  on 
the  Psalms  :  for  instance,  Ps.  xviii.  28  (Heb.  29)  : 
"  The  Lord  my  God  will  bring  me  forth  from  darkness 
into  light,  he  will  let  me  look  upon  the  consolation  of 
the  age  that  is  to  come  for  the  righteous."  Ps.  xxx.  5 
(Heb.  6)  :  Because  his  wrath  is  for  a  moment  ;  life 
eternal  is  his  favour."  Ps.  xxxix.  5  (Heb.  6):  "But 
all  are  counted  as  nought ;  but  all  the  righteous  endure 
to  life  eternal."^  Ps.  Ixiii.  3  (Heb.  4)  :  **  For  better  is 
thy  mercy  which  thou  wilt  show  to  the  righteous  in 
the  age  to  come,  than  the  life  that  thou  hast  given  to 

^  Cf.  2  Sam.  vii.  19,  where  "for  a  great  while  to  come"  (lit. 
afar  off)  is  represented  in  the  Targ.  by  "  for  the  world  to 
come." 

^  The  Hebrew  words  of  the  text  being  taken  as  if  they  could 
mean  "  (They  are)  all  vanity  ;  every  man  standeth  firm/'  and 
then  being  further  paraphrased. 


92  SERMON    IV. 

the  wicked  in  this  age."  ^  Ps.  xcii.  lo :  "  Lo  thine 
enemies,  O  Lord,  lo  thine  enemies  shall  perish  in  the 
world  to  come."  Ps.  cxxxix.  i8  :  "  If  I  should  count 
them  in  this  world,  they  are  more  in  number  than  the 
sand  ;  when  I  awake  in  the  world  to  come,  I  am  still 
with  thee." 

Sometimes,  lastly,  a  possible  misconception  is 
guarded  a;^ainst  by  the  limitation  of  the  text  to  the 
present  world.  Thus,  Isa.  v.  20 :  "  Woe  unto  those 
that  say  to  the  wicked  who  prosper  in  this  world,  Ye 
are  good."  Ps.  Ixxiii.  12  :  "  Lo,  such  are  the  wicked 
who  dwell  at  ease  in  this  world  ;  they  obtain  riches 
and  acquire  substance."  Eccl.  vi.  8  :  "  What  advan- 
tage hath  the  wise  in  this  world  more  than  the  fool  ?  " 
But  in  the  Targuni  to  this  book,  the  contrast  between 
the  two  worlds  is  throughout  made  exceptionally 
prominent,  as  though  with  the  object  of  guarding 
against  sceptical  inferences  which  might  otherwise 
appear  capable  of  being  deduced  from  the  text.^ 

That  the  Jews,  meditating  upon  the  writings  of  the 
Old  Testament,  should  thus  have  arrived  at  the 
clearly-defined  hope  of  a  future  life,  cannot  form 
occasion  for  surprise.  For,  indeed,  the  immortality 
of  the  human  soul,  its  eternal  relation  to  the  Creator 

^  Cf.  V.  4  (Heb.  5)  :  "  So  Mill  I  bless  thee  while  I  live  in  this 
world  :  in  the  name  of  thy  Word  will  I  spread  out  my  hands  in 
prayer  in  the  world  to  come  "  ;  Ixvi.  9  :  "  Who  placed  our  souls  in 
the  life  of  the  world  to  come  "  ;  also  xvii.  14  :  "  But  the  righteous 
who  deliver  their  souls  for  thy  sake  unto  death  upon  earth, 
their  portion  is  in  life  eternal." 

^  See  Note  K  (p.  9S). 


GROWTH    OF   BELIEF   IN   A   FUTURE   STATE.      93 

who  has  called  it  into  being,  is  presupposed  in  the 
Old  Testament  revelation  ;  and  there  are  passages 
in  which  the  idea  is  on  the  verge  of  expression,  or, 
as  our  Lord  showed  on  a  celebrated  occasion,  latent, 
even  though  it  be  only  enunciated  explicitly  in  the 
later  writings  of  the  Old  Testament  canon.  The  in- 
timations of  a  future  life,  more  or  less  distinct,  thus 
contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  were  developed,  on 
the  basis  of  prophetic  representations  of  the  future 
triumph  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  in  the  manner  which 
I  have  sought  to-day  to  indicate.  These  develop- 
ments were  such  that,  in  certain  cases,  and  interpreted 
probably  in  a  more  spiritual  sense  than  belonged  to 
their  original  intention,  they  could  be  accepted  and 
appropriated  by  the  first  teachers  of  the  Christian 
faith.  In  its  eschatology,  as  in  its  Christology,  the 
Book  of  Enoch  is  based  essentially  upon  the  Old 
Testament  ;  it  is  an  imaginative  development  and 
elaboration  of  elementsderived  thence.  Of  distinctively 
Christian  truth,  of  the  truths,  that  is,  which  centre  in, 
or  radiate  from,  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  it 
does  not  exhibit  a  trace.  Its  resemblance  to  the 
writings  of  the  New  Testament  is  limited  to  externals. 
The  utmost  that  can  be  said  of  it,  in  this  respect,  is 
that  it  may  have  lent  to  the  Apostles,  perhaps  even 
to  our  Lord,  certain  figures  and  expressions  in  which 
they  could  suitably  and  conveniently  clothe  their 
ideas.  But  this  is  no  more  than  what  happened  in 
numberless  other  instances,  in  which  the  teaching  of 
both  Christ  and  Ilis  disciples  is  cast  in  the  mould  of 


94  SERMON    IV. 

contemporary  Jewish  thought.  Even  where  the  re- 
semblance appears  to  be  the  closest,  a  careful  com- 
parison will  disclose  significant  features  of  difference. 
The  originality  of  the  fundamental  conceptions  of 
Christianity  is  not  impaired  by  the  acknowledgment 
that  Jewish  thought,  reflecting  upon  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, may  have  provided  symbols  for  their  expression, 
or,  in  the  case  of  less  distinctive  ideas,  may  have  even 
reached  them  in  anticipation.  It  remains  that,  in  its 
full  significance,  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  was  first 
enunciated  in  the  Gospel ;  and  that  it  was  He  who 
"  abolished  death,"  who  also  was  the  first  to  bring 
"  life  and  incorruption  to  light." 


ADDITIONAL    NOTES    TO    SERMON    IV. 

Note  A. 

See  Job  x.  20—21  (Ps.  xxxix.  13),  22,  xiv.  21,  Eccl.  ix,  5,  10. 
"  Sheol,"  in  general  conception,  corresponds  to  the  Greek  Hades, 
and  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  "  the  grave."  The  dis- 
tinction is  rightly  preserved  in  the  Revised  Version.  It  is  true, 
there  are  particular  phrases,  as  "to  go  down  to  Sheol,"  the 
general  sense  of  which  is  sufficiently  represented  by  the  English 
idiomatic  expression  ''  to  go  down  to  the  grave"  ;  and  this  has 
accordingly  been  retained  in  the  Revised  Version  :  but  "Sheol '' 
in  such  cases  stands  on  the  margin  {e.  ^.  i  Sam.  ii.  6,  Is.  xxxviii. 
10),  and  elsewhere  it  is  used  in  the  text.  Occasionally  "hell" 
has  been  retained  from  the  Authorised  Version  (Is.  v.  14,  xiv.  9, 
15) :  this,  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  is  used  (as  in  the  Creed)  in 
the  old  sense  of  the  term,  and  not  in  that  of  a  place  of  torment. 
The  ordinary  Hebrew  belief  was  conscious  of  no  distinction  in 
the  future  lot  of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  The  impossi- 
bility of  a  return,  or  resurrection,  from  Sheol  was  also  strongly 
felt  (Job  vii.  9  f.,  xiv.  7-12,  Jer.  li.  39,  57,  Is.  xxvii.  14)  :  the 
possibility  of  another  life  entrances  Job  (Job  xiv.  14  f.,  RA^.), 
but  he  rejects  it  as  incredible  {vv.  16-22).  Comp.  A.  F. 
Kirkpatrick,  The  Psahns  {Book  /.),  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for 
Sc/ioo/s,  pp.  Ixxv-lxxvii  ;  and  see  also  the  Essay  on  "  Jewish 
and  Heathen  conceptions  of  a  Future  State"  in  the  late  Dr. 
Mozley's  Lectures  and  other  Theological  Papers  (1883),  p.  26  ff. 

Note  B. 

Is.  Ixv.  22.  The  view  of  the  prophet  is  that  in  the  future 
which  he  here  depicts,  the  ordinary  occupations  of  life  will  still 
be  pursued  (7/.  21),  but  there  will  be  a  cessation  of  the  drawbacks 


96  ADDITIONAL   NOTES   TO   SERMON    IV. 

and  disappointments  by  which  they  are  commonly  accompanied 
{vv.  20,  22%  23),  and  the  power  of  death  will  be  limited  {v.  22'')  : 
cf-  V-  20  (death  at  the  a;je  of  100  years  will  be  counted 
premature).  In  xxv.  8  the  power  of  death  is  represented  as 
abolished  altogether. 

Note  C. 

The  word  here  rendered  ''Shades"  is  rephaini  (lit.,  as  it 
seems,  7-elaxcd,  weak  ones),  which  occurs  besides  in  v.  14,  Job 
xxvi.  5.  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  10  (Heb.  11),  Prov.  ii.  18,  ix.  18,  xxi.  16. 
The  same  term  was  in  use  among  the  Phoenicians  ;  thus,  in  the 
sepulchral  inscription  of  Tabnich  {c.  300  B.C.),  found  near  Sidon, 
there  is  a  prayer  that  any  one  who  disturbs  the  tomb  may  find 
no  "resting-place  with  the  Shades"  (see  the  writer's  Notes  07t 
the  Hebrew  text  of  Samuel,  1890,  pp.  xxvii,  xxix). 

Note  D. 

The  word  rendered  "contempt"  (R.V.  viarg.  "abhorrence") 
is  a  peculiar  one,  and  is  in  all  probability  borrowed  from  Is. 
Ixvi.  24  (the  only  other  passage  in  which  it  occurs),  where  it  is 
applied  to  the  putrefying  carcases  of  the  "transgressors"  — 
/.  e.  in  particular,  the  disbelieving,  renegade  Israelites  (see 
xlvi.  8,  Ixv.  2-5,  II,  Ixvi.  5,  17) — whom  the  prophet  represents 
as  destroyed  by  a  sudden  Divine  intervention  (Ixvi.  17-19), 
and  whose  dead  bodies,  exposed  in  one  of  the  valleys  near  Jeru- 
salem, will  be  a  continual  spectacle  of  horror  to  the  pilgrims 
visiting  the  Holy  City  {vv.  23,  24). 

Note  E. 

Eccl.  iii.  17,  xi.  9,  xii.  14.  But  the  interpretation  of  these 
passages  is  doubtful  ;  and  in  view  of  the  uncertainty  expressed 
generally  in  the  book  with  respect  to  a  future  life  (see  especially 
iii.  19-21,  R.V.,  where  the  doctrine  is  treated  avowedly  as 
unproven),  it  is  more  probable  that  the  reference  is  to  temporal 
judgments.  Comp.  the  writer's  Introduction,  p.  448.  Dr. 
Mozley, /.  <:.  p.  51,  has  been  misled  by  the  Authorised  Version 
of  Eccl.  iii.  21,  the  punctuation  which  this  implies  giving 
rise  to  an  unidiomatic  and,  indeed,  an  impossible  Hebrew 
sentence,  while  that  expressed  by  the  R.V.  is  natural  and 
regular. 


ADDITIONAL   NOTES   TO   SERMON    IV.  97 

Note  F. 

It  should  however  be  noted  that  in  the  Book  of  Daniel  the 
period  immediately  following  the  death  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
and  end  of  his  persecutions  (Dan,  xi.  31-45),  which  is  marked 
by  the  resurrection  of  Israelites  (xii.  i,  2),  appears  to  be  identical 
with  that  to  which  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  and  triumph  of 
the  saints,  are  assigned  (vii.  11-14,  18-27). 

Note  G. 

On  the  characteristics  of  "  Apocalyptic  Literature,"  comp. 
J.  Drummond,  The  Jewish  Messiah  (1877),  pp.  1-132  ;  J.  E.  H. 
Thomson,  Books  which  itifliienced  otir  Lord  a?id  His  Apostles 
(1891 ),  p.  193  fif.  ;  and  the  references  in  the  writer's  Introduction, 
p.  482. 

Note  H. 

See  also  the  Targ.  on  Ps.  xxi.  9  (Heb.  10)  :  "Jehovah  shall 
devour   them   in  his  anger,  and  the  burning  of   Gehenna  will 
consume  them"  ;  xxxvii,  20  (on  "they  consume  in  smoke,  they 
consume  away") :    ''The  wicked  shall  come  to  an  end,  and  be 
consumed  in  the  smoke  of  Gehenna  "  ;  xHx.  10  (Heb.  11):  "  For 
the  wise  will  see  the  wicked  judged  in  Gehenna"  ;  i4(Hcb.  15) 
"Their  bodies  shall  waste  a.vay  in  Gehenna";   15  (Heb.   16) 
"But  God  will  save  my  soul  from  the  judgment  of  Gehenna" 
Iv.  23  (Heb.  24)  (for  "  the  pit  of  depression")  ;  Ixix.   15  (Heb. 
16)  (for  "  the  pit  ")  ;  Ixxxiv.  6  (Heb.  7) :  "  The  wicked  who  pass 
over  to  the  depths  of  Gehenna,  weeping  with  weepings,  make 
it   like   a   spring";  Ixxxviii.    12  (Heb.    13)  ("the  darkness   of 
Gehenna");    ciii.  4  (for  "the   pit");    cxx.   4  ("with  coals  of 
broom,  kindled  in  Gehenna  beneath  "),  &:c. 

Note  I. 

See  the  writer's  Notes  on  the  Hebrew  text  of  Samuel,  p. 
Ixxxiv,  or  (from  Aquila,  who  followed  Rabbinical  principles 
of  exegesis)  the  Preface  to  Field's  Hexapla,  p.  xxii  f.  Jerome^ 
who  was  guided  sometimes  by  Jewish  teachers  and  trans- 
lators, has  the  same  interpretation  of  the  Hebrew  word  in 
Is.  Ixvi.  24,  "  et  erunt  usqite  ad  satictatcin  7'isionis  omni  carni '' 

H 


98  ADDITIONAL   NOTES   TO   SERMON   IV. 

(z.  e.  jii^")"!!  read  as  PX"!  '•'il).  "  Scape-goat  "  is  an  example  of  a 
rendering  based  ultimately  upon  a  similar  exegetical  device, 
which  has  preserved  its  place  in  the  Authorised  Version  to  the 
present  day  c'?^^!?^  "  Azazel,"  read  as  ^TN*  tr,  z.  e.  "  the  departing 
goat,"  Symmachus  rpdyoq  cnrtpx^H-^^f^^}  Aquila  Timyog  dnoXvufitvog, 
Jerome  caj>er  emissarius). 

Note  J. 

The  word  "paradise"  (which  is  of  Persian  origin),  though  it 
is  found  in  the  Targums,  is  never  used  there  in  the  sense  which 
it  has  acquired  in  Christian  literature  from  Luke  xxiii.  43,  but  only 
in  the  general  sense  (which  it  has  also  in  Hebrew,  Cant.  iv.  3, 
Neh.  ii.  8,  Eccl.  ii.  5)  cti  orchard  ox  park. 

Note  K. 

Thus  on  Eccl.  i.  3  ("  What  profit  hath  man  of  all  his  labour 
■wherein  he  laboureih  under  the  sun?")  the  Targum  has: 
What  profit  hath  a  man  after  he  dies  of  all  his  labour  wherein 
he  laboureth  under  the  sun  in  this  world,  except  he  occupy 
himself  in  the  law,  that  he  may  receive  a  perfect  reward  unto 
the  world  to  come  before  the  Lord  of  the  world  ?  i.  9,  And 
there  is  no  new  thing  in  this  "world  under  the  sun.  iii.  22,  And 
I  saw  that  there  is  nothing  better  in  this  world  than  that  a  man 
should  rejoice  in  his  good  works,  and  eat,  and  drink,  and 
gladden  his  heart ;  for  that  is  his  good  portion  in  this  world  to 
purchase  with  it  the  world  to  come.  vii.  15,  There  is  a  just 
man  that  perisheth  in  his  righteousness  in  this  world,  but  his 
justice  ((9r  merit)  is  preserved  for  him  for  the  world  to  come  ;  and 
there  is  a  wicked  man  that  prolongeth  his  days  in  his  sins,  and 
the  reckoning  of  his  evil  deeds  is  reserved  for  him  for  the 
world  to  come,  that  vengeance  may  be  taken  of  him  in  the  day  of 
the  great  judgment.  And  frequently  besides.  The  expression 
"that  world  "  (Luke  xx.  35)  is  also  used  of  the  age  to  come  in 
the  same  Targum  (on  v.  15,  vi.  4,  9,  vii.  14,  viii.  15,  x.  19). 


SERMON    V/ 

THE  HEBREW  PROPHETS. 

Amos  ii.  11-12  :  "And  I  raised  up  of  your  sons  for  prophets, 
and  of  your  young  men  for  Nazirites.  Is  it  not  even  thus, 
O  ye  children  of  Israel?  saith  the  Lord.  But  ye  gave  the 
Nazirites  -wine  to  drink ;  and  commanded  the  prophets, 
saying,  Prophesy  not." 

The  Book  of  Amos,  brief  though  it  is,  offers  much 
to  engage  the  reader's  attention.  With  the  doubtful 
exception  of  Joel,  Amos  is  the  earliest  of  the  prophets 
whose  writings  arc  incorporated  in  the  Old  Testament 
canon.  Himself  a  native  of  Judah,  he  receives  a 
commission  to  preach  in  the  Northern  Kingdom  ;  and 
ap[)ears  at  the  royal  sanctuary  of  Bethel,  towards  the 
end  of  the  long  reign  of  Jeroboam  1 1.,'  about  750  years 
before  Christ.  In  the  case  of  the  earlier  prophets, 
owing  to  the  habit  of  the  Hebrew  historians  to  re-cast 
and  amplify,  in  the  sense  of  their  own  times,  the  say- 
ings transmitted  to  them  from  an  earlier  age,  it  is 
often  difficult  to  feel  assured  that  the  prophecies 
reported  in  the  historical  books  are  before  us  in  their 
original  colouring  and  dress  ;    in  the  case  of  Amos, 

1  Preached  at  St.  Mary's,  before  the  University,  on  Sunday, 
Oct.  16,  1887. 

2  B.C.  c.  786—746.     Co.nparc  the  table  in  the  writer's  Isaiah, 

P-  13. 


100  SERMON    V. 

\vc  have  the  witness  of  a  contemporary,  a  keen  and 
acute  observer,  furnishinc^  us  himself  with  a  picture  of 
the  beHefs  and  institutions  of  his  day,  describing  to 
us,  directly  or  by  allusion,  the  condition  of  life  and 
society  in  Northern  Israel,  declaring,  freely  and  un- 
restrainedly,  the    impression    which    they    produced 
upon   him,  and    the   motives  impelling   him  to  pass 
judgment  upon  them.     In  the  text,  he  alludes  to  two 
classes  of  God-directed  men,  one  the  Nazirites,  men 
who   by  a    life  of  abstinence   protested    against  the 
sensuality  and  indulgence  prevalent  about  them,  and 
who,   from    the   nature   of   the    allusion,    must   have 
formed  a  conspicuous  element  in  society  ;  the  other, 
the  prophets.     It  is  as  giving  us  a  personal  record  of 
the  work,  and  aims,  and  convictions  of  a  prophet  at 
this   early   date,   that   the    Book    of  Amos   acquires 
peculiar  interest.    Thus  the  authority  which  a  prophet 
of  that    day    claimed    is    expressed    by    him    in    the 
memorable  words  : — "  Surely  the  Lord  Jehovah  will 
do  nothing,  but  he  revealeth  his  secret  to  his  servants 
the   prophets.      The  lion  hath  roared,  who   will  not 
fear  ?     The  Lord  Jehovah  hath  spoken,  who  can  but 
prophesy  ? "  ^      The    prophet   came    forward    as   the 
spokesman  and  representative  of  his  God  ;    and  the 
impulse  prompting  him  to  deliver  the  message  which 
he  had  received  was  an  irresistible  one.     Hosea,  the 
younger  contemporary  of  Amos,  speaks  of  the  prophet 
in  similar  terms.     Thus  alluding  both  to  the  promi- 
nent position  which  they  took,  and  to  their  authority, 

1  Amos  iii.  y,  8. 


THE   HEBREW   PROPHETS.  10 1 

he  writes  : — ''  I  have  also  spoken  unto  the  prophets, 
and  I  have  multipHed  visions  ;  and  by  the  hand  of 
the  prophets  have  I  used  simihtudes."  ^  And  just  as 
Amos  in  the  text  imphes  that  their  preaching  was 
apt  to  be  unpalatable  to  the  people,  so  Hosea  alludes 
to  the  resentment  which  his  own  observation  had 
shown  him  that  it  provoked  :  "  As  for  the  prophet, 
a  fowler's  snare  is  in  all  his  ways,  and  enmity  in  the 
house  of  his  God."  ^ 

The  history  of  Israel,  it  has  been  said,  is  a  history 
of  prophecy.  It  is  a  history  in  which  men  of  pro- 
phetic rank  and  name  stand  at  the  great  turning- 
points  of  the  people's  life  and  direct  the  movements. 
It  is  a  history,  further,  in  which  the  inner  progress  of 
the  nation  was  largely  determined  by  the  prophets, 
who  sustained  or  intensified  the  religious  life  of  the 
community,  and  stood  superior  to  their  contempor- 
aries, as  the  exponents  and  representatives  of  ethical 
and  theological  truth.  I  propose  this  morning  to 
offer  a  few  illustrations  of  their  ^vork  in  the  two 
spheres  of  politics  and  morals.  The  insight  and 
independence  possessed  by  the  prophets  fitted  them, 
in  a  singular  degree,  to  be  the  political  advisers  of 
their  nation.  They  were  in  closer  sympathy  than 
most  of  their  fellow-countrymen  with  the  needs  of 
the  time ;  they  apprehended  more  quickly  and 
accurately  what  the  situation  of  the  nation  demanded  ; 
they  saw  beyond  the  seeming  interests  of  the  moment, 
and  were  regardless  either  of  popular  favour,  or  of 
^  Hos.  xii.  lo.  2  Hos.  ix.  8. 


102  SERMON    V. 

interests  of  party.  Surveying  the  nations  around,  the 
prophets  descry  in  advance  the  tendencies  and  im- 
pulses hidden  from  ordinary  eyes,  and  lay  down  the 
principles  by  which,  as  the  course  of  history  shapes 
itself,  the  welfare  of  their  own  nation  demands  that 
it  should  be  guided.  They  denounce  the  popular 
statesmanship  of  the  day,  and  expose  the  fallacies 
which  underlie  it.  They  attack  the  national  sins  and 
shortcomings,  showing  how  they  must  inevitably  work 
out  their  natural  results,  in  a  deterioration  of  national 
character  and  a  growing  inability  to  meet  danger 
calmly.  Amos  sees  society  in  the  Northern  Kingdom, 
in  spite  of  the  brilliancy  and  long  prosperity  of  Jero- 
boam's reign,  morally  vitiated  and  corrupt.  The 
nobles  of  Samaria,  so  far  from  evincing  anxiety  for 
the  public  weal,  "  put  far  the  evil  day,"  and  are  aban- 
doned to  self-indulgence  and  luxury  ;i  the  heathen 
themselves  are  invited  to  testify  to  the  violence  and 
disorder  prevalent  in  the  capital ;  ^  and  each  section 
of  his  prophecy  ends  with  a  dark  vision  of  approach- 
ing disaster  and  misfortune.^  In  the  plaintive,  halting 
rhythm  of  the  Hebrew  elegiac,"^  he  sings  :— 

The  virgin  of  Israel  is  fallen  ;  she  shall  no  more  rise  : 

She  lieth  forsaken  upon  her  land  ;  there  is  none  to  raise  her  up. 

He    speaks    again,    even    more    significantly    and 

directly :  "  Behold,  I   raise  up  against  you,  O  house 

of  Israel,  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts,  a  nation  ; 

^  Amos  vi.  3-6.  ^  Amos  iii.  9. 

^  Amos  ii.   14-16  ;  iii.  14  f.  ;  v.  26  (R.V.  nuug.),  27  ;  vi.  14; 
vii.  17,  &c. 

■*  See  the  writer's  Iniroduciion^  p.  429  f.  ^  Amos  v.  -2. 


THE    HEBREW   PROPHETS.  I03 

and  they  shall  afflict  you  from  the  enter'ng  in  of 
Hamath  unto  the  brook  of  the  Arabah/'^  The 
limits  here  indicated  are  exactly  those  to  which, 
according  to  the  history,  the  then  reigning  monarch 
had  just  successfully  restored  the  dominion  of  Israel.^ 
The  words  of  Amos  were  soon  to  be  verified.  Within 
sixteen  years  the  inhabitants  of  the  north-eastern 
districts  were  deported  by  Tiglath-Pileser  to  Assyria:^ 
within  thirty  years  the  Northern  Kingdom  had  ceased 
to  exist.^  The  prophet  had  interpreted  but  too  truly 
the  signs  of  the  times.  He  had  seen  in  advance  the 
formidable  influence  which  Assyria  was  destined  soon 
to  exercise  upon  the  fortunes  of  Palestine :  he  per- 
ceived how  little  fitted  the  political  leaders  of  Samaria 
were  to  guide  their  state  safely  through  the  approach- 
ing crisis ;  he  set  before  them  the  course  which  there 
was  hope  might  at  least  partially,  if  it  was  not  too 
late,  avert  the  ruin  ;^  but  he  saw,  not  the  less  clearly, 
what  the  final  issue  would  be. 

Other  illustrations  of  the  same  faculty  possessed  by  M, 
the  prophets  are  not  far  to  seek.  The  prophets  who  j 
were  popular  with  the  people  were  those  who,  while 
finding  nothing  in  their  conduct  to  censure,  held  out 
to  them  visions  of  felicity  and  peace,  to  be  realized 
in  the  immediate  future,  without  any  such  antecedent 
period  of  discipline  or  probation  as  is  always  postu- 
lated by  the  canonical  prophets.     Such  prophets  are 

^  Amos  vi.  14.  ^  Sec  2  Kings  xiv.  25.  ^  B.C.  734. 

*  The  capture  of  Samaria  followed  almost  immediately  after 
the  accession  of  Sargon,  B.C.  722.  ^  Amos  v.  1 5. 


I04  SERMON   V. 

often  alluded  to,  for  instance,  by  MIcah,  Isaiah,  and 
I  Jeremiah  :  they  are  described  as  merely  echoing  the 
superficial  sentiment  of  the  masses,  or  as  being 
"  prophets  of  their  own  hearts."  ^  In  Jeremiah's  time, 
when  the  invader  was  at  the  door,  they  persistently 
promised  peace  ;  ^  and  after  the  Chaldaeans  had  carried 
away  the  vessels  of  the  Temple  to  Babylon,  they 
promised  their  restoration,  and  the  return  of  the 
exiled  King,  Jehoiachin,  "  within  two  years."  ^  Jere- 
miah's eye  had  seen  more  truly.  Not  only  had  he 
foreseen  the  ruin  which  the  policy  of  the  last  kings  of 
Judah  was  accelerating  ;  he  foresaw  besides,  in  its 
true  magnitude,  the  dimensions  which  the  empire  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  was  destined  to  attain.  With  an 
unfaltering  hand,  in  bold  and  clear  strokes,  he  con- 
structs the  future.  No  sooner  had  Nebuchadnezzar, 
in  604  B.C.,  gained  his  crucial  victory  over  Pharaoh- 
Necho  at  Carchemish,  than  the  prophet  grasps  the 
idea  that  the  empire  of  the  then  known  world  is  to 
be  his  :  he  greets  the  conqueror  with  the  ode  of 
triumph,  preserved  in  chapter  xlvi.,  promising  him 
further  successes  ;  he  styles  him  "Jehovah's  servant,"  ^ 
and  declares  that  the  safety  of  Judah  is  to  be  found 
in  submission  to  his  sway.^  For  seventy  years  the 
Chaldcean  supremacy  should  be  maintained.     At  the 

1  Mic  ii.   II,  iii.   5,  11  ;  Is.  xxx.   10;  Jcr.  v.   12,  13,  xxiii.   16, 
26  ;   Ezek.  xiii,  2,  10. 

2  Jer.  vi.  14,  xiv.  13-15,  xxiii.  16  f.  ^  jg^.  xxviii.  3  f. 

^  Jer.  XXV.  9  :  so  some  ei^^ht  years  afterwards,  xxvii.  6  ;  and 
ac^ain  after  the  fall  of  Jcrusaleiii,  xliii.  10. 
■"'  Jer.  xxv.  8-1 1,  xxvii.  12-14. 


THE   HEBREW   PROPHETS.  IO5 

end  of  that  period,  the  exiled  Jews  should  be  visited 
and   restored  to  their  place.^      The    prophets,   as    is 
natural,  accommodate   their  views   to   the  changing 
movements  which  sway  the  political  world.    A  century 
before,  Isaiah  had  promised  that  the  tide  of  Assyrian 
aggression  should  be   rolled   back  from  the   rock  of 
Zion,  and  leave  the  Jewish  state,  not  indeed  untouched 
by  the  fury  of  the  waves,  but  still  standing  and  secure. 
Now,  Jeremiah  saw  that  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
was   destined  to   prevail,  and   taught  that  the  safety 
of  the  city  lay  in  its  acceptance  of  the    inevitable. 
He  was   persecuted    by  political  opponents,  he   was 
charged  with  lack  of  patriotism  and  courage,  but  the 
issue  showed  that  he  had  seen  aright.     Fifty  or  sixty 
years  afterwards  another  crucial   moment  arrived  in 
the  history  of  the  chosen  people.     Was  Judah  to  lose 
its  individuality  in  the  land  of  its  exile,  to  be  gradually 
assimilated,  like  its  brethren  of  the  ten  tribes,  to  the 
nations  among  whom  it  dwelt  ?     Or  was  it  to  return 
to  its  ancient  home,  and  complete  the  destined  course 
of  its  history  ?     There  were  many  who  had  followed 
the  advice  given  by  Jeremiah  to  the  first  exiles  ;  -  they 
had  settled  down  and  found  their  ease  in  their  adopted 
home.      They  were   content    to    remain   where   they 
were  ;  they  had  no  high  aspirations  for  the   future ; 
the   magnificence   of  Babylonian    idolatry  overawed 
them  ;   the  strength  and  resources  of  the  proud  im- 
perial city  were  able,  they  felt  assured,  to  repel  every 
assailant.^     There  was  a  prophet  who  saw  otherwise 

^  Jcr.  xxix.  10.  ^  Jer.  xxix.  5-7. 

^  See  the  expressions  of  despair,  which  the  prophet  proceeds 


I06  SERMON    V. 

— the  author  of  the  great  series  of  discourses,  which 
now  form  the  last  twenty-seven  chapters  of  the  Book 
of  Isaiah.  Did  they  deem  it  impossible  that  the 
power  of  the  Chald^eans  could  be  shaken  ?  The 
prophet  meets  their  doubts  in  the  profound  and 
pregnant  words  :  "  All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the 
goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the  field.  .  .  . 
The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth  ;  but  the  word 
of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever."  ^  Did  they  point  to 
tlie  pomp  and  splendour  of  the  Babylonian  idols  ? 
He  aims  against  them  the  keen  shafts  of  irony  and 
satire.-  Cyrus  is  Jehovah's  appointed  agent,  and 
though  his  triumphal  progress  may  throw  the  nations 
of  Asia  into  consternation  and  drive  them  in  terror 
to  their  idol-gods,^  Israel  has  no  ground  for  fear : 
a  noble  and  august  future  is  still  before  it.-^  Did  they, 
still  unconvinced,  allege  that  the  facts  refuted  the 
prophet's  too  sanguine  view.-*  He  replies:  "For 
my  thouglits  are  not  as  your  thoughts,  neither  are 
your  ways  my  ways,  saith  Jehovah  :  "  your  estimate 
of  the  facts  is  a  false  one ;  the  word  spoken  cannot 
be  recalled  ;  and  the  joy  with  which,  ere  long,  you 
will  leave  Babylon  behind  you,  will  be  your  in- 
voluntary attestation  of  its  truth.^ 

to  controvert,  in  Is.  xl.  27,  xlix.  14,  24  (to  be  read  with  the 
second  part  of  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version) ;  also  xliv.  21 
{Israel  bidden  to  take  to  heart  the  folly  of  attaching  any  im- 
portance to  the  idols  of  Babylon,  satirized  in  xliv.  10-20). 

1  Is.  xl.  6-8. 

^  Is.  xli.  5-7  (the  nations  of  the  earth  manufacturing  new 
idols,  in  the  hope  of  arresting  the  progress  of  Cyrus)  ;  xliv.  9-20; 
xlvi.  1-2  ;  cf.  xlvii.  9-15. 

3  Is.  xli.  2-7.  4  Is.  xh.  8-20.  5  Is,  iv.  8  12. 


THE   HEBREW   PROrHETS.  10/ 

An  attentive  study  of  their  writings  shows  that 
the  prophets  are  prinnarily  the  teachers  of  their  own 
generation.  It  is  the  pohtical  mistakes,  the  social 
abuses,  the  moral  shortcomings,  of  their  own  age 
which  they  set  themselves  to  correct.  To  be  sure, 
they  assert  principles  which  are  of  universal  validity, 
and  capable,  therefore,  of  application  in  new  and 
altered  circumstances  ;  but  the  special  forms  which 
these  principles  assume  in  their  hands  show  that  they 
have  been  deliberately  adopted  to  meet  the  needs  of 
their  own  time.  Prophecy  subserved  moral  purposes: 
and  its  primary  scope  was  the  practical  guidance, 
in  life  and  thought,  of  those  amongst  whom  the 
prophet  lived.  This  fact  affords  us  a  criterion  for 
estimating  the  temporal  predictions  of  the  prophets. 
The  predictive  element  in  th3  prophets  is  not  so  great 
as,  perhaps,  is  sometimes  supposed.  Not  only  do 
the  prophets  deal  with  their  actual  present  much 
more  largely  than  is  popularly  imagined  to  be  the 
case,  but  even  in  their  announcements  relative  to  the 
future,  the  amount  of  exact  and  minute  prediction 
is  less,  probably,  than  might  antecedently  have  been 
expected.  The  prophet's  theme  is  developed  with 
an  artist's  hand.  He  constructs  a  picture  for  the 
purpose  of  representing  it  in  its  completeness,  and 
his  genius  supplies  him  with  images  of  surprising 
beauty  and  force.  But  the  imagery  is  merely  the 
external  dress  in  which  the  idea  is  clothed  ;  and  it 
is  a  vain  and  false  literalism  that  would  demand  a 
place  for  its  details  in  the  fulfilment.  There  has  been 
no  highway  such  as  Isaiah  pictured  for  the  return  of 


I08  SERMON   V. 

the  banished  Israelites  from  Assyria  :  ^  no  pillar,  or 
obelisk,  reminds   the   traveller  entering    Egypt,  that 
the   country  is   devoted   to   the   worship   of  the  true 
God  :'"  Sennacherib  perished  by  the  sword  in  his  own 
land  ;    and    the   vast    funeral    pyre  which   the   same 
prophet  conceived  as   prepared   for   him,  and   which 
he   saw   in    imagination    already   being    kindled    by 
Jehovah's  breath,^  is   but  the  form   under  which  he 
depicts  the  completeness  of  the  Assyrians'  ruin.     So, 
again,  Isaiah's   sense   of  the  weakness    of  Egyptian 
nationality,  and  its  inability  to  resist  any  determined 
assailant,  finds  expression  in  a  prophecy  in  which  he 
expands  this  thought,  and  with  a  keen  appreciation 
of  national  characteristics,  applies  it  over  the  entire 
area  of  Egyptian  civilization.^     Their  figures,  there- 
fore, as  this  example  shows,  though  not  to  be  under- 
stood too  literally,  are  not  idly  chosen  ;   they  stand 
in  a  real  relation  to  the  thought  to  be  expressed,  and 
will  be  found,  if  properly  studied,  to  be  its  suitable 
and    adequate    exponent.      Other   prophecies,   again, 
relating  to  the   future,  are  rather  of  the    nature   of 
solemn    denunciation   than    prediction    in    the    strict 
sense  of  the  term  ;  they  indicate  the  issue  to  which  a 
policy,  or  course  of  action,  may  naturally  be  expected 
to  lead,  without  claiming  to  announce  it  categorically 
as  a  prediction.     Other  predictions,  as   is  expressly 
taught  by  Jeremiah,''  are  nullified  by  a  change  super- 
vening in  the  moral  situation  :  uttered  conditionally, 
and    on    the    basis    of  a    particular    combination    of 

1  Is.  xi,  16.  2  ig  xix.  19,  20. 

3  Is.  XXX.  ^2-  *  Is.  xix.  1-17.  ^  Jer.  xviii.  7-10. 


THE   HEBREW    PROPHETS.  IO9 

circumstances,  when  the  circumstances  alter,  the 
issue,  it  is  evident,  may  change  also,  and  the  pre- 
diction be  thus  no  longer  applicable.  And  of  others, 
sometimes  remarkably  definite,  we  do  not  know 
whether  they  were  fulfilled  or  not,  as  for  example, 
Isaiah's  declaration  of  the  humiliation  of  Moab  within 
three  years,  or  of  Kedar  within  one  year,  or  of  the 
banishment  of  Shebna.^ 

But  when  the  necessary  deductions  have  been 
made  upon  grounds  such  as  these,  there  remain  un- 
doubted and  remarkable  examples  of  true  predictions  ; 
not,  indeed,  predictions  relating  to  a  remote  future, 
without  interest  or  significance  for  the  prophet's  own 
contemporaries,  but  predictions  declaring  the  issue 
of  a  present  political  complication,  or  announcing 
beforehand  a  coming  event,  especially  events  having 
a  bearing  on  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Instances  of  such  prediction,  verified  within  the  limit 
of  a  few  years,  have  been  quoted  already.  Jeremiah's 
prophecy  of  the  expiration  of  the  Chaldsean  supremacy 
after  seventy  years,  is  no  exception  to  this  rule  ;  the 
restoration  which  then  followed  was  but  the  termin- 
ation of  the  same  phase  of  history,  of  which  Jeremiah's 
contemporaries  in  604  were  witnessing  the  com- 
mencement. Two  or  three  other  examples  may  be 
worth  referring  to.     One  of  the  boldest,  and  also  one 

1  Is.  xvi.  14  ;  xxi.  16  f. ;  xxii.  18.  Shebna  is  mentioned  after- 
wards, in  701  E.G.  (Is.  xxxvi.  3  ;  xxxvii.  2),  as  no  longer  holding 
the  important  office  of  Governor  of  the  Palace  (which  is  filled 
now,  in  accordance  with  Isaiah's  promise,  xxii.  20  f.,  by  Eliakim)  ; 
but  he  has  not— at  least  prior  to  that  year— been  banished  :  he 
still  retains  a  place,  as  "scribe,"  among  the  king's  ministers. 


no  SERMON    V. 

of  the  clearest,  is  afforded  by  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 
Isaiah,  a  year  bjfore  the  event,  predicted,  not  the 
siege  merely  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Assyrian  armies 
(which,  in  our  ignorance  of  the  precise  circumstances, 
we  are  unable  to  affirm  might  not  conceivably 
have  been  reached  by  political  calculation),  but  the 
termination  of  the  siege  by  a  sudden  and  unexpected 
disaster  dispersing  the  attacking  forces.  "  Ah,  Ariel, 
Ariel,  the  city  where  David  encamped  !  add  ye  a  year 
to  the  year,  let  the  feasts  run  their  round  ;  then  will 
I  distress  Ariel,  and  there  shall  be  mourning  and 
lamentation.  And  I  will  camp  against  thee  round 
about,  and  will  lay  siege  against  thee  with  a  fort,  and 
I  will  raise  siege  works  against  thee.  But  the  multi- 
tude of  thy  foes  shall  be  like  small  dust,  and  the 
multitude  of  the  terrible  ones  as  the  chaff  that  passeth 
away  ;  and  it  shall  be  at  an  instant,  suddenly."  ^  So 
different  did  the  prospect  appear  to  the  people  of  the 
city,  that  they  could  att:ich  no  meaning  to  the 
prophet's  words,  and  stared  at  him  as  he  spoke  in 
blank  astonishment  and  incredulity.^  But  Isaiah  is 
confident,  and  does  not  shrink  from  repeating  his 
assurances.  The  passage  I  have  quoted  is  but  the  first 
of  a  scries  of  utterances,  in  all  of  which  he  describes 
under  varying  imagery  a  sudden  and  mysterious 
disaster,  which  will  annihilate  Judah's  foes.  Thus 
shortly  afterwards  we  read  :  "  As  birds  flying,  so  will 
Jehovah  of  Hosts  protect  Jerusalem  ;  he  will  protect 
and  deliver  it,  he  will  pass  over  and  preserve  it. 
And  the  Assyrian  shall  fall  with  the  sword,  not  of 
^  Is.  xxix.  1-3,  5.  -  Is.  xxix.  9. 


THE    HEBREW    rROPHETS.  Ill 

man  ;  and  the  sword,  not  of  man,  shall  devour  him  : 
and  he  shall  flee  from  the  sword,  and  his  young  men 
shall  be  set  to  task  work."  ^  And,  a  little  later, 
probably  while  the  troops  of  Sennacherib  were  mass- 
ing close  at  hand  in  the  Philistine  territory:  "The 
nations  rush  like  the  rushinj  of  many  waters,  but  he 
shall  rebuke  them,  and  they  shall  flee  afar  off,  and 
shall  be  chased  as  the  chaff  of  the  mountains  before 
the  wind,  and  like  the  whirling  dust  before  the  storm. 
At  eventide  behold  confusion  :  before  the  morning 
he  is  not !  "  -  And,  still  later,  \vhen  the  last  hope  of 
escape  seemed  almost  to  have  been  cut  off,  and  the 
fate  of  the  city,  to  human  eyes,  must  have  appeared 
to  be  scaled  :  "  At  the  noise  of  the  tumult,  the  peoples 
are  fled  ;  at  the  lifting  up  of  thyself  the  nations  are 
scattered."  ^  The  vagueness  or  obscurity  which  some- 
times appears  to  hang  over  the  prophet's  words,  can 
often  be  removed,  when  it  is  possible  to  throw  upon 
them  the  light  of  history.  On  a  bas-relief  now  in  tl:e 
British  Museum  there  is  the  representation  of  a 
warrior  king  seated  upon  his  throne  of  state  :  around 
are  seen  chariots  and  armed  attendants ;  in  front 
there  advances  a  train  of  crouching  captives  ;  an 
inscription  above  exhibits  the  words,  "  Sennacherib, 
king  of  multitudes,  king  of  Assyria,  seated  on  a  lofty 
throne,  receives  the  spoil  of  the  city  of  Lachish."  ^     A 

1  Is.  xxxi.  5,  8.  ^   Is.  xvii.  13-14.  ^  jg  xxx.  iii.  3. 

*  See  Schrader,  CiDieiform  Inscriptiois  cmd the  Old  Testament^ 
p.  287  (Engl.  Tr.,  i.  p.  280).  Photographs  of  this  interesting  bas- 
relief  are  published  by  Messrs.  Mansell,  2  Percy  Street,  Rath- 
bone  Place,  London  (Nos.  433,  434,  436  of  the  Assyrian  series). 


112  SERMON   V. 

voice  has  risen  out  of  the  ruins  of  Kouyunjik  to 
interpret  the  Hebrew  prophet  to  this  generation. 
Isaiah  continues,  apostrophizing  the  enemy:  "And 
your  spoil  shall  be  gathered  as  the  caterpillar  gather- 
eth  ;  as  locusts  leap,  shall  they  leap  upon  it."  i  The 
varying  imagery  which  the  prophet  employs  warns 
us  that  we  must,  as  before,  be  on  our  guard  against 
undue  literalism  in  interpretation ;  but  the  funda- 
mental thought  which  throughout  underlies  it,  is  in 
entire  agreement  with  the  event ;  and  whether  it  was 
a  pestilence,  or  some  other  agency,  that  caused  the 
destruction  of  the  Assyrian  host,  its  occurrence  at  the 
time  required  for  the  salvation  of  the  city,  was  a 
coincidence  beyond  the  reach  of  human  prevision  or 
calculation.  Other  instances,  if  not  so  brilliant,  yet 
not  less  convincing,  might  readily  be  found.  Dam- 
ascus capitulated  to  Tiglath-Pileser,  literally  within 
the  limits  of  time  anticipated  by  Isaiah,-  and  the  fall 
of  Samaria  was  not  postponed  many  years  beyond  it. 
It  would  have  been  particularly  interesting  to  notice 
Jeremiah's  announcement  of  the  spot  in  Tahpanhes 
on  which  Nebuchadnezzar,  upon  entering  Egypt, 
should  erect  his  royal  throne.^  Until  recently,  no 
independent  evidence  of  an  invasion  of  Egypt  by 
Nebuchadnezzar,  was  known  to  exist ;  but  two  inscrip- 
tions  lately  discovered   now  attest  it,^  and   cylinders 

1  Is.  xxxiii.  4.  See  more  fully,  on  the  passages  referred  to,  the 
Avriter's  volume  on  Isaiah,  in  the  "  Men  of  the  Bible  "  series, 
chap.  vii.  p.  66  ff. 

'^  Is.  viii.  4.  3  jgj.  xYui.  10, 

*  See  Wiedemann,  Acgyptischc Zeitschrift,  1878,  pp.  2-6,  87-89, 


THE   HEBREW   PROPHETS.  1 13 

inscribed  with  his  name  have  been  disinterred  ahnost 
upon  the  very  site  indicated  by  Jeremiah. ^  An 
impartial  criticism,  while,  on  the  one  hand,  owning 
that  temporal  predictions  exist  which  have  been 
apparently  unfulfilled,  and  admitting  the  probability 
that  in  the  case  of  such  as  refer  to  a  distant  future, 
they  have  been  incorrectly  dated,  or  not  transmitted 
to  us  in  their  original  form,  will,  on  the  other  hand, 
frankly  acknowledge  such  as  are  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  or  suspicion,  and  will  not  seek  to  eliminate 
them,  or  minimize  their  significance,  by  special 
pleading. 

Ethically,  the  prophets  play  the  role  of  what  we 
should  term  social  reformers.  They  attack  the  abuses 
always  conspicuous  in  an  Eastern  aristocracy ;  they 
assert  with  uncompromising  persistency  the  claims 
of  honesty,  justice,  philanthropy,  and  mercy.  Cer- 
tainly, the  most  ancient  Hebrew  legislation  known 
to  us,  the  Decalogue  and  Book  of  the  Covenant,^  had 
placed  such  claims  in  the  forefront ;  and  the  prophets 
do  not,  in  this  respect,  so  much  advance  theoretically 
as  apply  old  principles  to  new  situations,  and  re-assert 
them  with  fresh  emphasis  and  energy.  To  purify 
justice,  to  reform  religion,  to  fight  against  inconsist- 
ency, to  redress  social  wrongs,  are  the  aims  common 
to   all    the    prophets.     Amos,  introducing   the    main 

Gesch,  Aegyptcns  vo?i  Psatn7)ietich  I.  lis  aiif  AlcxiDider  deti 
Grossen,  1880,  p.  167-169 ;  Schrader,  Cunciforjn  Inscriptions 
and  the  O.  T.,  on  2  Kings  xxiv.  i  (p.  363  f.). 

^  See  the  Academy,  1884,  vol.  xxv.,  p.  51. 

^  Ex.  xx.-xxiii. 

I 


^^ 


114  SERMON    V. 

theme  of  his  prophecy,  shows  both  originality  and 
breadth  of  view.  Casting  his  eye  upon  the  nations 
around,  Damascus,  Gaza,  Tyre,  Edom,  Ammon,  Moab, 
he  fastens  upon  some  act  of  cruelty  or  inhumanity  of 
which  each  has  been  guilty,  and  declares  the  judg- 
ment impending  upon  it.^  Israel  might  listen  thus 
far  with  equanimity  :  but  the  prophet  ends  by  apply- 
ing to  the  privileged  nation  the  same  standard : — 
"  Thus  saith  Jehovah  :  For  three  transgressions  of 
Israel,  and  for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punish- 
ment thereof,  because  they  sold  the  righteous  for  silver, 
and  the  poor  for  the  sake  of  a  pair  of  shoes  ;  that 
pant  after  the  dust  of  the  earth  on  the  head  of  the 
poor,  and  turn  aside  the  way  of  the  meek."  ^  What 
a  picture  do  these  few  words  suggest  to  us  of  society 
in  the  Northern  Kingdom,  750  years  before  Christ,  and 
of  the  faculty  for  keen  and  comprehensive  criticism 
possessed  by  the  herdman  from  Tekoa !  Amos,  the 
first  of  the  canonical  prophets,  transcends  the  bounds 
of  Jewish  particularism  :  he  never,  it  has  been  noticed, 
describes  Jehovah  as  the  God  of  Israel ;  he  describes 
him  as  the  "  God  of  Hosts,"  which,  whatever  the 
origin  of  the  phrase  may  have  been,^  becomes  prac- 
tically equivalent  to  the  Omnipotent :  and  here  he 
represents  Him  as  meting  out  equal  justice,,  alike  to 
Israel  and  the  Gentiles,  not  for  the  neglect  of  religious 
rites,  not  even  for  their  adhesion  to  unspiritual  service, 

1  Amos  i.  2 — ii.  5.  2  Amos  ii.  6-7. 

^  Comp.  E.  Kautzsch,  in  Herzog's  Real-Eiicyklopiidie  (ed.  2), 
art.  Zebaotli  (1886)  ;  and  in  Stade's  Zeitschrijt  fiir  die  alttesta- 
uientliche  lVisse?tscha/t,  1886,  p,  17  ff. 


THE    HEBREW    PROPHETS.  II5 

but  for  their  repudiation  of  the  duties  and  offices 
imposed  upon  all  by  their  common  humanity.  Amos' 
keen  sense  of  justice  appears  again  and  again  in  the 
course  of  his  prophecy.  Thrice  does  Jehovah  swear  :  1 
and  each  time  the  oath  is  eh'cited  by  some  deed 
of  selfishness,  or  indifference,  or  dishonesty :  "  Hear 
this,  ye  that  would  swallow  up  the  needy,  and  make 
the  poor  of  the  land  to  fail  ;  saying,  When  will  the 
new  moon  be  gone,  that  we  may  sell  corn  ?  and  the 
Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat  ?  making  tlie 
ephah  small  and  the  shekel  great,  and  falsifying  the 
balances  by  deceit.  .  .  .  Jehovah  hath  sworn  by  the 
excellency  of  Jacob  :  Surely  I  will  never  forget  any 
of  their  works."-  And  noting  the  inconsistency  of 
elaborate  religious  observances  conjoined  with  a  dis- 
regard of  the  moral  principles  of  which  they  should 
be  the  accompaniment  and  the  expression,  he  exclaims, 
speaking  still  in  Jehovah's  name  :  "  I  hate,  I  reject 
your  pilgrimages  ;  and  I  will  take  no  delight  in  your 
solemn  assemblies.  Take  thou  away  from  me  the 
noise  of  thy  songs  ;  for  I  will  not  hear  the  melody 
of  thy  viols.  But  let  judgment  roll  down  as  waters, 
and  righteousness  as  an  ever-flowing  stream."  ^ 

In  Isaiah,  consistently  with  the  more  permanent 
and  influential  position  enjoyed  by  the  prophet  in 
Jerusalem,  the  indictment  is  n^.ore  detailed,  and  covers 
a  Avider  area  than  is  the  case  in   Amos.     His   fifth 

1  Amo5  iv.  2,  vi.  8,  viii.  7.  2  Amos  viii.  4-7. 

3  Amos  V.  21,  23,  24.  Comp.,  on  the  prophetic  work  of  Amos, 
the  excellent  account  contained  in  W.  R.  Smith's  Pi'ophcts  of 
Israel^  p.  1 20  If, 


Il6  SERMON    V. 

chapter  may  be  taken  as  a  representative  one.    Open- 
ing with   the  parable   of  the  vineyard,   the   prophet 
shows    how,    in    spite    of   the    advantages    lavished 
profusely  upon  it,  Israel  has  disappointed  its  Owner, 
and   not   repaid    the  care  bestowed   upon    it : — "  He 
hoped  for  justice,  but  behold  bloodshed  ;  for  righteous- 
ness, but  behold  a  cry."     And  then  one  by  one  the 
national  sins  are  summed  up.i     The  inordinate  desire 
for  the  possession  of  large  estates  which  now  asserted 
itself,  accompanied,  no  doubt,  by  the  unfair  or  violent 
ejectment  of  less  fortunate  possessors  ^ ;  the  immoder- 
ate indulgence  in  pleasures  of  the  table,  leaving,  in  the 
minds  of  many,  no  room  for  more  serious  thought ;  ^ 
the   devotion    to   sin   for   sin's   sake,  attended    by  a 
scoffing  and  defiant  unbelief* ;  the  confusion  of  moral 
distinctions,  blinding   men    to   the   true   nature   and 
issue  of  the  course  which   they  were  pursuing ;   the 
self-satisfied  astuteness  of  the  leading  politicians,  who 
were    confident    in    the  wisdom    of  their   plans,  and 
conceived   that  their  projects  for  the  welfare  of  the 

1  Is.  V.  8-23.  2  Comp.  Mic.  ii.  2. 

^  Is,  V.  12'' :  the  "work  of  the  Lord"  and  the  "operation  of 
his  hands  "  (cf.  Ps.  xxviii.  5),  z.  e.  the  purpose  of  God,  realizing 
itself  in  history,  and  by  means  of  the  laws  which  govern  the 
■welfare  of  nations.  These  laws,  the  leaders  of  the  nation  do  not 
regard  or  understand  :   the  consequence  is,  that  the  people  suffer 

(^-  13)- 

*  Is.  V.  18:  "Who  draw  iniquity  with  cords  of  vanity,  and 
sin  as  it  were  with  a  cart  rope,"  i.  e.  who  are  so  devoted  to  sin 
that  they  chain  themselves  by  cords  of  illusion,  i.e.  by  worth- 
less considerations  to  which  they  attach  a  fictitious  import- 
ance, and  drag  it  after  them  as  though  they  were  beasts  of 
burden. 


THE   HEBREW   PROPHETS.  11/ 

State  were  above  criticism  ;  ^  the  systematized  corrup- 
tion of  the  administrators  of  justice — these  are  the 
sins  which  Isaiah  denounces  in  his  long  invective, 
showing  how  in  truth  they  were  already  working 
their  normal  effects  in  the  deterioration  of  the  national 
life,2  incapacitating  it  for  dealing  effectually  with  the 
difficulties  which  the  age  brought  with  it.  And  if  we 
read  the  volume  of  his  prophecies  as  a  whole,  we  see 
how  no  class  in  the  community  is  exempted  from  his 
censure.  The  men  of  rank  and  authority,  who 
ignored  the  responsibilities  of  office  or  position  ;  ^  the 
leaders  of  opinion,  who  possessed  weight  in  the 
Government,  or  gave  a  tone  to  society  ;^  the  advocates 
of  a  plausible  but  short-sighted  policy,  who  possessed 
the  art  of  securing  the  ear  of  the  people  ;  ^  a  power- 
ful minister  whose  influence  he  perceived  was  oper- 
ating to  the  jeopardy  of  the  State ;  ^  the  masses 
whom  he  saw  sunk  in  indifference  or  formalism  ; ''  the 
King  himself,  whether  it  were  Ahaz  in  his  wilfulness 

^  Is.  V.  21.  In  illustration  of  the  "wisdom"  here  alkided  to, 
comp.  xxix.  14^^ ;  xxxi.  2^  :  "  He  also — z.  e.  Jehovah,  not  less  than 
the  politicians — is  wise,  and  doth  not  recall  his  words,"  &c. 

^  Is.  V.  24.  Notice  the  figures  employed.  The  image  is  that  of 
a  tree,  rotting  where  it  stands  :  the  "  root,"  which  ought  to  be 
the  channel  of  nutriment,  becomes  rottenness,  and  the  "  blossom," 
•which  ought  to  be  fresh  and  healthy,  vanishes  in  the  air  as 
dust.  And  so  the  collapsing  strength  of  the  nation  is  compared 
by  the  prophet  to  a  mass  of  hay  sinking  down  and  disappearing 
rapidly  in  the  flames. 

^  i.  23  ;  iii.  14-15  ;  xxviii.  7  f. ;  xxix.  20  f.  *  iii.  12. 

^  xxviii.  14-22  ;  xxix.  14.^,  15  f.  ;  xxx.  1-3,  7  ((.  ;  xxxi.  i  f. 

^  xxii.  15  fif. 

'  i.  4,  10  ff.  ;  ii.  6  ff.  ;  xxix.  13  f.  ;  xxx.  8-1 1  ;  xxxii.  9  ((. 


IlS  SERMON    V. 

and  insincerity,  or  Hezekiah  listening  incautioush'  to 
the  overtures  of  a  foreign  potentate  ^ — all  in  turn 
receive  the  prophet's  bold  and  fearless  rebuke.  In 
Isaiah,  we  have  an  example  of  the  prophet,  upon  a 
more  conspicuous  and  broader  platform  than  that  on 
which  Amos  stood,  engaged  in  a  lifelong  conflict  with 
the  dominant  tendencies  of  his  age. 

I  have  sought  to  illustrate,  under  two  aspects,  the 
historical  significance  of  the  prophets.  History,  we 
see,  elucidates  the  prophecy ;  prophecy  interprets  the 
history.  If  we  would  understand  the  prophecy  rightly, 
we  must  throw  ourselves  back  to  the  time  at  which 
it  was  uttered,  and  realize  the  social  and  political 
situation  to  which  it  was  addressed.  Then,  in  its 
turn,  prophecy  illumines,  and  even  directs,  the  history. 
May  the  Spirit  which  quickened  and  exalted  the 
genius  of  the  prophets  help  us,  as  we  read  their 
writings,  to  take  the  lessons  which  they  teach  to 
ourselves  !  May  He  inspire  us,  if  it  be  possible,  with 
the  same  generous  and  disinterested  impulses,  the 
same  lofty  aspirations,  the  same  admiration  of  nobility 
in  thought  and  deed,  the  same  honesty  and  love  of 
truth ! 

^  vii,  lo  (C.  ;  xxxix.  3  ff. 


SERMON    VI} 

THE    VOICE    OF  GOD   IN   THE   OLD    TESTAMENT. 

Heb.  i.  1-2  :  "God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers 
in  the  prophets,  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners, 
hath  at  the  end  of  these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  his  Son." 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  opens  In  the  Greek  with 
two  significant  adverbs,  7To\vfj.€pw<i  and  TroAurpoTrcoj, 
which  the  writer  uses  for  the  purpose  of  character- 
izing the  revelation  contained  in  the  Old  Testament 
The  first  of  these  adverbs  is  one  which  it  is  difficult 
to  reproduce  in  our  language  at  once  forcibly  and 
idiomatically.  Perhaps  the  sense  expressed  by  it  wdll 
be  best  understood  if  we  recollect  that  It  is  opposed 
to  a/itepo)?,  which  would  denote  singly^  luidividedly ; 
and  that  It  thus  conveys  the  idea  of  what,  instead  of 
being  single  and  undivided,  is  broken  into  many  parts. 
If  we  might  Illustrate  the  Apostle's  meaning  by  a 
metaphor,  we  might  say  that  he  represents  God's 
former  revelation  as  not  concentrated  in  a  single 
volume,  or  mediated  by  a  single  agent,  but  as  dis- 
tributed  through  many  channels,  and  mediated  by  a 

1  Preached  at  Great  St.  Mary's,  Cambridge,  before  the  Uni- 
versity, on  Sunday,  April  27,  1890. 


120  SERMON    VI. 

succession  of  different  agents.  In  the  use  of  the 
term  it  is,  moreover,  indirectly  involved  that  the 
individual  agents  in  whom  God  thus  severally  spake, 
received  but  a  partial — we  might  almost  say  a  frag- 
mentary— revelation  of  His  will.  rTo^urpoTro)?,  the 
other  adverb  which  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  uses,  is 
explained  more  readily :  it  indicates  simply  diversity 
of  manner,  "  in  many  modes."  The  same  two  adverbs 
are  used,  as  it  happens,  in  combination  by  Clement  of 
Alexandria,^  in  illustration  of  the  epithet  TroXviroiKikos 
applied  by  St.  Paul  to  the  wisdom  of  God  in  Eph. 
iii.  10,  which  displays  itself,  this  father  says,  "for  our 
advantage  '  in  many  parts  and  in  many  modes,'  in 
art,  in  knowledge,  in  faith,  in  prophecy."  It  is  the 
manifold  and  multiform  manifestation  of  God,  received 
of  old  by  the  fathers  through  the  prophets,  which  the 
Apostle  here  describes,  and  with  which  he  contrasts 
the  single  and  supreme  revelation  made  "  at  the  end 
of  these  days,"  in  One  who  was  no  prophet,  or  other 
subordinate  minister,  but  "  a  son." 

I  propose  to  offer  for  your  consideration  to-day 
some  reflections,  suggested  by  these  words  of  the 
Apostle,  on  the  variety  of  form  and  circumstance 
and  occasion,  with  which,  as  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament,  God  revealed  Himself  to  the  fathers. 
And  first  and  foremost  He  revealed  Himself  to  them 
in  the  prophets  properly  so  called.  With  but  few 
exceptions,  it  is  only  the  prophets  who  make  the 
claim  to  announce  God's  "  word,"  to  enunciate  a 
^  Quoted  by  Dr.  Wcstcott,  in  his  note  ad.  loc. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD    IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      121 

message  which  they  have  received  from  Him.  The 
prophet  is  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  organ  of  Jehovah's 
will.  He  has  listened  in  the  council  of  the  Almighty  ;  ^ 
he  has  stood,  in  vision,  in  the  presence-chamber  of 
the  Most  High,  and  heard  there  words  which  thrilled 
through  his  inmost  being  ;  ^  he  has  felt  within  him 
the  impulse,  before  which  he  quailed  as  at  the  lion's 
roar,  or  which  consumed  his  bones  as  a  hidden  fire  ;  ^ 
he  knows  that  Jehovah  "doeth  nothing  but  he  re- 
vealeth  his  secret  to  his  servants  the  prophets  ; "  ^ 
ever  and  anon,  as  he  speaks,  it  is  "  Thus  saith 
Jehovah,"  "  Hear  ye  the  word  of  Jehovah,"  "  'Tis  the 
oracle  of  Jehovah."  If  there  are  degrees  of  inspiration, 
the  highest  degree  must  surely  be  sought  in  those 
who  thus  constantly  and  unwaveringly  declare  the 
plenitude  of  their  inspiration,  and  claim  to  bring 
directly  to  men  the  message  of  the  Most  High.  But 
the  prophets  did  not  always  receive  this  message 
through  the  same  activity  of  their  mental  organism. 
Sometimes  they  became  conscious  of  it  in_a  vision  ;  ^ 
more  frequently,  as  it  would  seem,  by  an  impulse  or 
direction  given  to  their  waking  thoughts,  or  by  a 
quickening  of  their  natural  faculties  of  intuition  or 
reflection.  And  their  message,  when  received,  was  com- 
municated to  men  in  many  different  forms.  Some- 
times   it    was   expressed    in    plain,  direct    language ; 

1  Jer.  xxiii.  i8,  22.  2  jg  yi   j-i^. 

2  Amos  iii.  8,  Jer.  xx.  9.  ^  Amos  iii.  7. 

^  I   Kings  xxii.    19-22,  Amos  vii.   1-9,  viii.  1-3,  ix.    1-4,  Hos. 
xii.  12,  Is.  vi.,  Jer.  !.,  xxiv.  1-3,  Ezek.  i,,  Sec. 


122  SERMON    VI. 

sometimes  it  was  made  palpable  in  a  significant  act ;  ^ 
more  often  it  was  clothed  by  the  prophet's  imagination 
in  the  gorgeous  dress  of  poetic  symbolism.  In  genius 
and  character  the  individual  prophets  differ  widely  : 
but  they  all  possess,  in  a  rare  degree,  the  power  of 
presenting  their  thought  in  an  attractive  literary  garb. 
The  flowing  periods  of  Amos,  the  condensed  vehe- 
mence of  Hosea,  the  majestic  oratory  of  Isaiah,  the 
artless  pathos  of  Jeremiah,  the  studied  pictures  of 
Ezekiel,  the  w^arm  and  impassioned  eloquence  of  the 
great  prophet  of  the  exile — all,  in  different  ways, 
while  they  reflect  the  diversified  individuality  of  their 
authors,  at  the  same  time  excite  profoundly  the 
reader's  interest  and  attention. 

Nor  are  the  topics  with  which  the   prophets  deal 

less  varied  than  their  styles.     The  prophets  come  to 

the  forefront   in   many  capacities.     They  move  with 

'   the  times,  and    are   the   representatives   of  the  best 

thought  and  of  the  best  culture  which  the  Israelitish 

nation    could    produce.       Politically,   they    are    their 

nation's  truest  counsellors  at  the  critical  moments  of 

its  history.     In   earlier  times  they  are   influential  in 

setting  up  or  dethroning  dynasties  :   at  a  later  time 

they  stand   beside  the  king  to  admonish  or  advise. 

They  saw  more  clearly  than  their  contemporaries,  as 

the  result  repeatedly  showed,  the  bearing  upon  Israel 

I  of  the  movements    and    tendencies  operative    about 

\  them  :   they  interpreted  beforehand  the  signs  of  the 

^  £.£:  Is.  XX.,  Jer.  xiii.   i-ii,  xix.   lo  f.,  xxvii.  2,  xxviii.  10,  H. 
59-64,  Ezek.  xii.  i  (f.,  xxxvii.  15-20. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD   IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 23 

times,  and  warned  their  countrymen  how  to  face  the 
future.  With  what  clear  insight  do  Amos  and  Hosea 
detect  the  germs  of  dissolution  in  the  fabric  of  the 
Northern  Kingdom!  How  confidently  and  how  un- 
erringly does  Isaiah  declare,  first  the  failure  of  Syria 
and  Ephraim,  then  the  failure  of  those  more  formid- 
able aggressors,  the  Assyrians,  in  their  projects  for 
the  ruin  of  Jutlah  !  With  what  a  just  instinct  docs  he 
plant  his  finger  upon  the  hollowness  of  Egyptim 
promises !  1  And  how  truly  a  century  afterwards 
does  Jeremiah,  apparently  in  direct  antagonism  to 
the  line  pursued  by  his  great  predecessor,  foresee  the 
success  of  the  Chald^eans,  and  divine  the  purpose  of 
Providence  to  crown  Nebuchadnezzar  as  the  monarch 
of  Western  Asia  !  ^  And  yet  another  prophet,  still 
in  advance  of  his  contemporaries,  when  the  appointed 
term  of  the  Babylonian  empire  was  approaching, 
heralded  the  advent  of  the  conqueror  who  was  to 
overthrow  it,^  sustained  with  glowing  promises  the 
failing  spirits  of  his  countrymen,  and  sketched  in 
grand,  imposing  outline  his  nation's  future  destiny. 
Erom  the  time  of  Moses  onwards,  at  every  important 
epoch  in  the  history  of  Israel,  it  was  a  prophet  who 
assumed  the  place  of  authority,  and  taught  his  people 
the  duty  which  the  age  required  of  it. 

But  the   prophets  were  more  than   political   coun- 
sellors :    they  were   the   chief  upholders   of  morality 

1  Is.  XX.  5,  6,  XXX.  5,  7,  xxxi.  3. 

^  Jer.  XXV.  8-1 1,  15-29,  xxvii.  6,  8-1 1  :  comp.  above,  p.  lo4f. 

2  Is.  xli.  2,  25,  xliv.  28,  xlv.  1-4,  13,  &:c. 


124  SERMON    VI. 

and  religion.  Not  only  did  they  uphold  generally, 
in  accents  of  solemn  earnestness  which  can  never 
lose  their  spell,  the  claims  of  righteousness,  philan- 
thropy, equity,  and  other  social  virtues — so  apt  in  all 
countries,  but  especially  in  Eastern  countries,  to  be 
disregarded — and  the  claims  of  Jehovah  as  against 
other  gods  whose  worship  possessed  often  such  a 
strange  attractiveness  for  the  less  spiritually  minded 
Israelites  ;  but  they  taught  also  many  special  lessons. 
Amos,  for  instance,  teaches  the  impartiality  with 
which  God  views  all  nations,  and  shows  that  he 
demands  of  Israel  precisely  the  same  standard  of 
equity  and  right  which  he  exacts  of  other  nations.^ 
Hosea,  the  prophet  of  religious  emotion,  teaches  the 
love  with  which  Jehovah  regards  Israel,  and  while 
reproaching  Israel  for  the  imperfect  manner  in  which 
His  love  was  requited  by  it,  deduces  the  lesson  that 
the  individual  Israelite  who  seeks  to  participate  in 
God's  love,  must  show  love,  on  his  own  part,  to  his 
brother  man.^  Isaiah,  in  imagery  of  which  he  alone 
is  master,  sets  forth  the  majesty  of  Jehovah's  God- 
head, declares  the  triumph  of  righteousness  and  true 
religion  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Assyrian,  and  holds 
up  before  his  nation  the  inspiring  ideals  of  a  reno- 
vated human  nature,  a  purified  and  transformed 
society.^     Ezekiel,   while  watching  from    his    distant 

1  Amos  ii.  6-8  (cf.  i.  3— ii.  5),  ix.  7-10.     Comp.  pp.  114-116, 

2  Ho3.  xi.  1-4;    ii,  2-5,  8,  iii.  i,  iv.  i,  2,  vi.  4-7,  xii.  6. 

3  Is.  X.  5-23  5    i.  26,  ii.    2-4,  iv.  3-4,  xxix.   17-24,  xxx.  20-22, 
xxxii.  1-8,  15-18,  xxxiii.  5-6,  24. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD    IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 25 

exile's  home  the  toils  closing  around  Jerusalem/ 
asserts,  in  uncompromising  stringency,  the  doctrine 
of  individual  responsibility,-  and  vindicates — though 
in  a  very  different  manner  from  Isaiah — the  majesty 
of  Jehovah,  which  might  seem  to  have  been  dis- 
paraged by  the  disastrous  ruin  of  the  city  of  His 
choice.^  And  the  prophet  to  whom  I  have  already 
alluded  as  heralding  the  advent  of  Cyrus,  preaches, 
in  language  more  exalted  and  impressive  than  is  to 
be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the  Bible,  the  transcend- 
ence, the  omnipotence,  the  infinitude  of  Israel's  God, 
His  incomparable  and  incommunicable  Being,  and 
withal  His  purposes  of  salvation,  which,  though  they 
are  directed  with  special  affection  towards  Israel,  com- 
prehend within  their  ultimate  scope  all  the  kindreds 
of  the  earth.^  In  the  approaching  restoration  of  the 
exiled  nation,  he  sees,  what  Ezekiel  did  not  see,  an 
event  of  crucial  significance  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  and  one  adapted  in  the  end  to  create  a  revo- 
lution in  the  religious  feelings  of  mankind.^  In  the 
case  of  every  prophet,  the  message,  which  it  is  dis- 
tinctively his  to  bring,  is  correlated  partly  with  his 
individual  character  and  genius,  partly  with  the  cir- 
cumstances   and    history  of  his   age.      And    thus   in 

1  Ezek.  i,-xxiv. 

^  Ezek.  xviii. 

3  Ezek.  xxxvi,  20-24,  36,  xxxviii.  23,  xxxix.  7,  21-24,  Comp. 
Prof.  A.  B.  Davidson's  Ezekiel,  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  for 
Schools,  pp.  xxxix- xlii. 

■*  Is.  xliv.  5,  xlv.  14,  23,  lii.  10. 

^  Is.  xl.  5,  xlii.  1'^  ("judgment"  =  religion),  3^,  4^  xlv.  6,  xlix. 
6,  li.  4,  Ivi.  7,  8,  Ixvi.  23  (comp.  the  writer's  Isaiah,  p.  16S  il). 


126  SERMON    VI. 

many  parts  and  in  many  modes  did  God  speak  to  the 
fathers  in  the  prophets. 

The  historical  books  describe  another  aspect  of 
God's  deahngs  with  His  people  ;  they  narrate  from 
different  points  of  view,  and  with  different  degrees  of 
historical  precision,  Israel's  chequered  history,— the 
story  how  from  small  beginnings  and  through  many 
vicissitudes  it  rose  to  be  an  organized  nation,  able  to 
hold  its  own  among  its  neighbours,  shorn  of  part  of 
its  glory  by  the  Assyrians,  but  succumbing  finally 
only  to  the  Chaldaeans,  and  then  wonderfully  restored 
to  its  ancient  home  in  order  to  complete  its  destined 
course  of  history.  Providence  watched  over  Israel's 
path,  and  guided  the  hands  of  its  leading  men.  And 
the  history,  as  it  is  told,  is  penetrated  from  the 
beginning  with  religious  ideas.  The  narrative  of  the 
Creation  sets  forth,  in  a  series  of  dignified  and  im- 
pressive pictures,  the  sovereignty  of  God  ;  His  priority 
to,  and  separation  from,  all  finite,  material  nature  ; 
His  purpose  to  constitute  an  ordered  cosmos  ;  His 
endowment  of  man  with  the  peculiar,  unique  posses- 
sion of  self-conscious  reason,  in  virtue  of  which  he 
becomes  capable  of  intellectual  and  moral  life,  and  is 
even  able  to  hold  communion  with  his  Maker.  The 
story  of  the  Fall  shows  how  human  wilfulness  thwarted 
God's  purpose  in  regard  to  the  future  of  man,  and 
introduced  into  the  world  moral  disorder.  The 
account  of  the  Flood  becomes  a  typical  illustration 
of  God's  anger  against  sin,  as  the  covenant  formed 
by  him  with  Noah  evinces  the  gracious  regard  with 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD   IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      12/ 

A\  hich,  if  they  would  but  respond,  He  views  the  whole 
race    of  mankind.     In    the    narratives   which    follow, 
although  it  is  probable  that  we  have  mostly  traditions 
rather  than  the  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  both  the 
contents  and  the  animating  spirit  are  not  less  remark- 
able.    In  the  history  of  the  patriarchs  we  have  the 
picture  of  men,  who,  in  that  distant  age,  are  witnesses 
and    examples    of  a    lively  faith    to    those    of  other 
nations  with  whom   they  come  in   contact,  and  who, 
while  moving  about  with  their  flocks  and  their  herds, 
and  though  drawn  by  their  wives  and  children  and 
family   connexions    into   various    entanglements,  are 
still  the  founders  of  a  religious  community :  "  For  I 
have  known  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may  command 
his  children  and  his  household   after  him,  that  they 
may  keep  the  way  of  the   LORD,  to   do  justice  and 
judgment."  ^     The  patriarchs  are  engaged  in  founding 
not  one  of  the  empires  of  the  world,  but  a  kingdom 
of  which  righteousness  is  to  be  the  rule.     The  ideal 
character  and  aims  of  the  people  of  God  are  prefigured 
in  their  history.     It  is  the  religious  colouring  of  the 
narrative  which  impresses  us,  the  didactic  aim  which, 
apparently  unsought  for,  nevertheless  attaches  to  it. 
The  story  of  Israel's  ancestors  might  have  been  told 
very   differently.       The    religious    spirit    might    have 
been  absent  from  it  altogether.    As  it  is,  the  patriarchs 
are   types   of  religious    characters  ;    and    their   lives 
abound  with  lessons  for  ourselves. 

Nor  is  the  case  different  afterwards.    In  the  IMosaic 
^  Gen.  xviii.  19. 


128  SERMON    VI. 

age  the  conspicuous  figure  is  the  character  of  Moses 
himself.     The   character  of  Moses  is  sketched  with 
pecuHar  vividness  and   force :    he    is  represented    as 
endowed,  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  with  singleness  of 
aim,  with  nobility  of  mind,  with  unwearied  and  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  for  the  welfare  of  his  people,  and 
with  that  modesty  both  of  word  and  demeanour  which 
is  observable  in  all  the  best  characters  of  Old  Testa- 
ment history.   Hosea  styles  him  a  prophet  ^ :  prophetic 
insight   and    foresight   are    ascribed    to   him    in    the 
Pentateuch :  Jehovah  is  represented  as  holding  con- 
verse with  him  not  by  a  vision  or  a  dream,  but  with 
some   special   and    distinctive   clearness,  "as  a   man 
spcaketh    unto    his    friend."  ^      To   the    period   while 
Israel  was  at  Sinai,  there  is  referred  the  re-affirmation 
of  the  aim  of  Israel's  national  existence,  which  was 
foreshadowed    in   the   history  of  Abraham :    **  Now, 
therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed,  and  keep 
my  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar  treasure  to 
me  above  all  peoples  :  for  all  the  earth  is  mine :  and 
ye  shall   be  unto   me  a  kingdom   of  priests  and   an 
holy  nation."  ^     To  Moses,  in  a  supreme  moment  of 
his  life,  is  vouchsafed  the  manifestation  of  Jehovah's 
gracious  character,  which  dominates   Israel's  history, 
and  which  prophets  and  psalmists,  one  after  another, 
re-echo :  "  And  the  LORD  passed  by  before  him,  and 
proclaimed,  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a    God    merciful   and 

^  Hos.  xii.  13. 

2  Ex.  xxxiii.  II ;  cf.  Num.  xii.  8,  Deut.  xxxiv.  10. 

^  Ex.  xix.  5-6. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD    IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 29 

gracious,  long-suffering  and  abundant  in  goodness  and 
faithfulness  ;  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving 
iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin  :  and  that  will  by 
no  means  clear  the  guilty ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  children's 
children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  gener- 
ation. And  Moses  made  haste,  and  bowed  his  head 
toward  the  earth  and  worshipped."^  To  Moses  are 
attributed  the  words  which  with  a  burst  of  grateful 
enthusiasm  celebrate  the  theocratic  privileges  of  the 
Chosen  People  :  "  There  is  none  like  unto  God,  O 
Jeshurun,  who  rideth  upon  the  heaven  as  thy  help 
and  in  his  majesty  on  the  skies  .  .  .  Happy  art  thou, 
O  Israel :  who  is  like  unto  thee,  a  people  saved  by 
the  Lord,  the  shield  of  thy  help,  and  that  is  the 
sword  of  thy  majesty  !  and  thine  enemies  shall  submit 
themselves  unto  thee ;  and  thou  shall  tread  upon 
their  high  places."  ^  Upon  all  the  pictures  which  we 
possess  of  the  Mosaic  age,  there  is  impressed  a  pro- 
found consciousness  of  Israel's  vocation,  of  the  duties 
imposed  upon  it,  and  of  the  privileges  which  it 
enjoys. 

In  the  Law  of  Moses,  God  speaks  in  different  ways  ; 
and  we  hear  His  voice  accommodating  itself  to  the 
needs  of  different  ages,  and  of  different  classes  of 
men.  In  one  group  of  laws^  the  needs  of  a  simple, 
comparatively  immature,  agricultural  society  appear 
to  be  held  in  view.     While  the  Decalogue  '*  embodies 

1  Ex.  xxxiv.  6-8.  ^  Dent,  xxxiii.  26-29. 

•^  Ex.  XX.  23— xxiii.  33.  *  Ex.  xx.  1-17. 

K 


130  SERMON    VI. 

the  fundamental  maxims  of  man's  duty  towards  God 
and  his  neighbour,  such  as  are  vaHd  while  human 
nature  remains  the  same,  the  group  of  laws  following 
it  regulates  such  subjects  as  slavery,  the  rights  of 
neighbours  possessing  contiguous  fields  and  pastures, 
compensation  for  injury  to  life  or  limb,  cases  of 
damage  to  property ;  and  prescribe  ^  rudimentary 
principles  of  sacrifice  and  religious  worship.  One 
or  two  of  the  provisions  strike  us  as  harsh ;  and 
certainly,  when  applied  literally,  in  ages  deficient  in 
the  historical  instinct,  to  altered  conditions  of  society, 
these  have  sometimes  led  to  disastrous  consequences  ; 
but  side  by  side  with  them  we  are  sensible  of  an 
atmosphere  of  true  philanthropy,  and  in  one  instance, 
note  the  anticipation,  in  a  form  suited  to  the  time, 
of  a  genuinely  Christian  spirit,  in  the  injunction,  viz., 
not  to  refuse  help  to  an  enemy  in  his  need — "  If  thou 
meet  thine  enemy's  ox  or  his  ass  going  astray,  thou 
shalt  surely  bring  it  back  to  him  again.  If  thou  see 
the  ass  of  him  that  hateth  thee  lying  under  his  burden 
thou  shalt  forbear  to  leave  it  to  him  alone ;  thou  shalt 
surely  loosen  it  with  him."  2  In  another  group  of 
laws,  those  embodied  in  Deuteronomy,  the  require- 
ments of  a  more  advanced  society  are  contemplated  : 
the  provisions  of  the  code  embrace  more  complicated 
relations  of  life  ;  great  stress  is  laid  upon  the  moral 
and  religious  motives  which  should  prompt  obedience 

^  Ex.  XX.   23-26,  xxii.  20,  xxiii.  13,  14-19,  24;    cf.  the  rcpcLi- 
tion  of  many  of  these  laws  in  Ex  xxxiv.  10-26. 
2  Ex.  xxiii.  4-5. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD    IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      I3I 

to  them  ;  the  spiritual  teaching  is  higher  and  more 
definite.  In  yet  another  group,^  the  hohness  which 
should  determine  and  pervade  the  Israelite's  life  is 
emphasized  ;  and  the  principle  is  made  the  basis  of 
a  series  of  important  moral  and  social  obligations. 
And  a  fourth  and  larger  group  ^  regulates  with  some 
minuteness  the  ceremonial  institutions,  which  as 
time  advanced  became  more  and  more  distinctly  the 
formal  expression  of  Israel's  faith.  The  ceremonial 
system  of  ancient  Israel  has  played  an  important 
function  in  the  religious  education  of  mankind.  It 
enforced  and  deepened  the  sense  of  sin.  It  declared  the 
need  of  restoration  and  forgiveness.  It  developed — 
perhaps  gradually — in  the  form  of  institutions  the 
great  principles  which  regulate  man's  converse  with 
God.  It  emphasized  the  significance  of  sacrifice 
under  its  different  aspects,  as  eucharistic,  dedicatory, 
propitiatory.  It  taught  more  and  more  distinctly 
that  an  atoning  rite  must  precede  the  acceptance  of 
the  worshipper  by  God.  It  thus  established  the 
principles  which  in  the  fulness  of  time  were  to  receive 
their  supreme  and  final  application  in  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  In  all  its  stages,  the  Mosaic  law  held  before 
the  eyes  of  Israel  an  ideal  of  duty  to  be  observed,  of 

^  Lev.  xvii.-xxvi., — called  often,  by  modern  critics,'on  account 
of  the  motive  which  principally  dominates  it,  the  "  Law  of  Holi- 
ness."    See  the  writer's  Introduction^  pp.  43,  44,  47. 

2  The  laws  forming  the  main  stock  of  the  ''Priests'  Code," 
and  contained  chiefly  in  Ex.  xii.  1-20,  40-51,  xiii.  1-2,  xxv.-xxxi.^ 
Lev.  i.-xvi.,  xxvii.,  Numb,  v.,  vi.,  xv.,  xviii.,  xix.,  xxvii.,  xxviii.- 
xxix.,  xxx,,  xx.w.,  xxxvi. 


132  SERMON    VI. 

laws  to  be  obeyed,  of  principles  to  be  maintained  ; 
it  taught  them  that  human  nature  needed  to  be 
restrained  ;  it  impressed  upon  them  the  necessity  of 
discipline.  And  in  an  age  when  disintegrating  in- 
fluences might  have  operated  disastrously  upon  the 
nation,  the  institutions  of  the  law  bound  together  the 
majority  of  its  members  in  a  religious  society,  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  forces  which  threatened  to 
dissolve  it.  In  many  parts  and  in  many  modes  did 
God,  through  the  ordinances  of  the  law,  speak  to  His 
people,  training  it  till  it  should  be  able  to  dispense 
with  their  aid,  and  be  ready  to  assimilate  the  higher 
teaching  of  Christ.  But  the  imperfect  and  provisional 
character  of  the  law  is,  in  principle,  expressly  recog- 
nized by  our  Lord,  who  says  of  one  enactment  that 
it  was  written  "  for  the  hardness  of  your  hearts,"  and 
who  even  propounds  a  higher  standard  of  action  than 
is  presented  in  the  Decalogue  itself.  It  thus  affords 
a  conspicuous  example  of  God  speaking  to  His  people 
in  language  that  had  only  a  relative  value,  and  was 
suited  only  to  the  needs  of  a  particular  people,  and  of 
particular  times. 

God  spake  again  to  the  fathers  through  poetry,  the 
language  of  the  emotions,  the  language  in  which  every 
nation  has  uttered  some  of  the  deepest  thoughts  of  its 
heart.  The  poetry  of  the  Old  Testament  is  surpassed 
in  its  kind  by  none  :  who  is  insensible  to  the  charm 
of  its  light  and  graceful  movement,  its  balanced, 
responsive  rhythm,  so  grateful  to  the  ear  even  in  a 
translation,  the  truth  and  force  with  which  the  scenery 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD   IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 33 

of  nature  or  human  life  and  character  are  dehneatcd 
in  it  ?    It  is  moreover  singularly  varied  in  its  themes  ; 
the    Hebrew    poets   speak    in    many   strains  and    in 
many  moods.    We  hear  fragments  of  the  martial  lyrics 
in  which  national  victories  or  the  deeds  of  national 
heroes  were  celebrated  by  the  nation's  poets  ;i    and 
more  than  one  triumphal  ode  in  which  the  nation  or 
an    individual    renders    thanks    for    the    deliverance 
vouchsafed  by  Jehovah  has  been  preserved  complete.^ 
We  have  the  dramatic  poem,  in  which  by  the  inter- 
change of  argument  a  great  problem  of  human  life  is 
illustrated    on    its  different   sides,  and  the  reader  is 
thus  gradually  led    up    to  the  truth  which  the  poet 
desires   finally   to    unfold.     We   have,  at    least  in  a 
rudimentary  form,  the  drama  itself,  in  the   Song  of 
Songs,  where   with    rare   dehcacy   of  language,  and 
beauty  of  figure  and  of  thought,  there  is  represented 
the  triumph  of  faithful  love  over  the  blandishments 
of  a  monarch  and  the  attractions  of  a  gilded  court. 
We  have  the  elegy,  in  which  the  poet   in  accents  of 
tenderness    bewails  his    lost    friend,^  or  speaking  on 
behalf   of    his    nation    dwells    pathetically    upon    its 
sufferings,  appeals  beseechingly  to  the  Divine  com- 
passion, and  ends  with  the  assurance  of  restoration 
to   come.^     We    have  gnomic  poetry,  founded,  as  it 
seems,  by  the  wise    king   Solomon,  cultivated    after 

1   Numb.  xxi.   14  f.,  27-30,  Josh.  x.  12^^-13'^;    cf.  Ps.  Ixviii.  11- 
14;  also  I  Sam.  xviii.  7  (cf.  xxi.  11). 
-  Ex.  XV.  I- 1 8,  JudLj.  V. 
3  2  Sam.  i.  19-27;   iii.  33-34-  ^  L^'^"^-  l-"^'- 


134  SERMON    VI. 

him  by  others  of  those  shrewd  observers  of  Hfe  and 
character  whom  Israel  produced,  in  which  the  wisdom 
of  many  generations  is  stored  up  for  the  instruction 
of  future  ages.  In  the  Psalter  all  voices  of  the 
human  soul  are  heard.  There  is  despondency  un- 
relieved by  any  gleam  of  light ;  there  is  grief  ending 
in  hope,  or  even  in  a  strain  of  thanksgiving,  in  con- 
fident anticipation  of  coming  deliverance ;  there  is 
distress  and  anguish,  sometimes  caused  by  perse- 
cuting foes,  sometimes  by  a  faithless  friend,  some- 
times resulting  from  sickness,  sometimes  produced 
by  the  consciousness  of  sin  ;  there  are  psalms  of  faith 
and  resignation,  of  rejoicing  and  jubilation,  of  yearn- 
ing for  God's  presence,  and  the  spiritual  privilege  of 
communion  with  Him ;  there  are  didactic  psalms, 
psalms  deducing  lessons  from  the  past,  or  meditating 
on  the  problems  and  contradictions  of  the  present ; 
there  are  psalms  echoing  national  calamities  or 
successes  ;  there  is  the  cry  of  penitence  wrung  from 
the  nation's  heart  by  the  bitter  experiences  of  exile  ; 
there  is  its  new-born  consciousness  of  a  wider  and 
more  glorious  future  in  store  for  it,  in  the  psalms 
which  declare  that  "Jehovah  reigneth";i  there  are 
prophetic  outlooks  into  the  future  ;  ^  there  are  medi- 

^  Ps.  xciii.,  xcvi.,  xcvii.,  xcix.  ;  cf.  Ps.  xlvii.,  xcviii.  All  these 
Psalms  breathe  the  same  spirit,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the 
lyric  echo  of  Is.  xl.-lxvi.  With  "Jehovah  reigneth"  com  p. 
Is.  lii.  7''.  Comp.  further  Ps.  xciii.  i  with  Is.  li.  9;  xcvi.  i,  11 
with  Is.  xlii.  10,  xlix.  13  ;  xcviii.  1-4  with  Is.  xHi.  10,  lii.  10,  Ixiii 
5,  7,  xliv.  23  ;   xcviii.  7,  8  with  Is.  xhi.  10,  Iv,  12,  (S:c, 

2  Cf.    Ps.   xxii.    22-31,  xlvii.  9,  Ixv.    2,  Ixviii.   2S-35,  Ixxxvi.  9, 
cii.  21-22. 


THE   VOICE   OF   GOD   IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 35 

tations  on  the  power  and  goodness  of  God  as  shown 
in  creation,  in  history,  in  His  dealings  with  the 
human  race  and  with  Israel.  In  the  Psalms  the 
devotional  element  of  the  religious  character  finds 
its  completest  expression  ;  and  the  soul  is  displayed 
in  converse  with  God,  disclosing  to  Him  its  manifold 
emotions,  desires,  aspirations.  It  is  the  surprising 
variety  of  mood,  and  subject,  and  occasion  in  the 
Psalms,  which  gives  them  their  catholicity,  and  fits 
them  to  be  the  hymn-book  not  of  the  second  Temple 
only,  but  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  the  Psalms  we 
hear  the  voices  of  many  different  men,  possessed  of 
different  temperaments,  moving  in  the  midst  of 
different  circumstances,  and  living  at  very  different 
periods  of  the  nation's  life.  But  national  history  was 
the  instrument  which  in  God's  hand  struck  the  key- 
note of  the  deepest  utterances  of  the  psalmist,  not 
less  than  of  the  prophet,  in  ancient  Israel. 

And  thus  in  many  parts  and  many  modes  did  the  \ 
voice  of  God  speak  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets.  [ 
Yet  we  must  not  suppose  that  it  spoke  in  them 
mechanically  :  the  prophet  was  not,  what  the  Greek 
(MavTis  was  imagined  to  be,  the  unintelligent  medium 
through  which  truth  from  another  world  was  com- 
municated to  man.  The  psychical  conditions  under 
which  God  spoke  in  them,  the  nature  and  operation 
of  the  initial  impulse  which  brought  them  to  the 
consciousness  of  Divine  truth,  may  belong  to  those 
secrets  of  man's  inner  life  which  God  has  reserved  to 
Himself:  but  by  w^iatever  means  this  consciousness    I 


136  SERMON    VI. 

was  aroused,  the  Divine  clement  which  it  contained 
j  was    assimilated    by   the  prophet,  and    thus  appears 
\blended  with  the  elements  that  were  the  expression 
:of  his  own  character  and  genius.    The  Divine  thought 
takes  shape  in  the  soul  of  the  prophet,  and  is  pre- 
sented to  us,  so  to  speak,  in   the  garb  and  imagery 
with   which    he   has   invested    it ;    it  is  expressed  in 
j  terms    which    bear   the   external    marks   of  his  own 
j  individuality,  and  reflect   the  circumstances  of  time 
I  and  place  and  other  similar  conditions,  under  which 
it   was    first    propounded.      Divine   truth    is   always 
presented    through    the   human  organ  ;   it  is  always 
though   doubtless    not   always    to   the  same    degree, 
coloured  by  the  medium  through  which  it  has  been 
transmitted.     The  Divine  and    the   human  elements 
are  inseparably  blended,  and  not,  as  it  would  seem, 
in  every  part  of  the  Old  Testament  in  precisely  the 
same   proportions.     The  material  data  contained  in 
the  historical  books  lay  no  claim  to  be  derived  from 
other   than  human  sources  ;    and   there  are  at    least 
portions    of  the  same    books,  the  spiritual   value  of 
which  is  not  as  great  as  that  of  the  Prophets  or  the 
Psalms.     Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  there  are  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament  in  which  a  personal,  or  national, 
temper  asserts  itself  in  a  spirit  which  is  not  that  of 
Christ.     And    if,    moreover,    it    be    true    that    in   the 
religion  of  Israel  that  which  is  perfect  is  not  yet  at- 
tained, but  is  only  in  process  of  being  reached,  then,  as 
the  venerable  Dclitzsch  has  remarked  in  his  last  work,^ 
^  McssiiViiscJic  Wcissaguiigcn  (1890),  p.  20. 


THE  VOICE   OF   GOD   IN    THE  OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 37 

it   ought    not   to   offend    us    even    should    the    Old   | 
Testament  Scriptures  prove  to  contain  more  elements   ! 
that  are  relatively  imperfect   than  has  hitherto  been 
supposed  to  be  the  case. 

But  viewed  generally  the  human  element,  whether  p 
it  be  present  in  a  larger  or  smaller  proportion,  is 
interpenetrated  and  suffused  by  an  element  higher  j 
than  itself;  it  is  illumined,  elevated,  and  refined  by  i 
a  peculiar  and  unique  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
True  and  noble  thoughts  gleam  like  flashes  of  light 
from  the  pages  of  the  great  thinkers  of  ancient 
Greece ;  the  labours  of  modern  scholars  have  dis- 
closed to  us  the  forms  of  those  searchers  after  truth, 
who  in  a  remote  past,  and  in  distant  climes,  felt  after 
God,  and  in  part  also  found  Him  (for  "  he  left  not 
himself  without  witness"  among  men)  :  but  the  voices 
of  these  men  are  dim  and  faltering,  as  compared  with 
the  clear  and  vivid  consciousness  of  truth  which  is 
reflected  in  every  part  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  and 
the  truths  which  they  reached  contrast  strongly,  in 
respect  of  fulness,  warmth,  and  richness,  with  those 
which  arc  enunciated  by  the  prophets  and  poets  of 
ancient  Israel.  These  writers  speak  from  a  soul  that  I 
has  been  touched,  and  a  heart  that  has  been  warmed,  \ 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  living  God.  And  that  the 
religion  of  Israel,  though  subject  in  its  growth  to 
historical  conditions,  is  not  to  be  explained  as  arising 
solely  out  of  them,  is  not,  in  other  words,  to  be 
treated  as  a  natural  product  of  the  genius  of  the 
people,  appears  besides  from  the  fact  that  it  stands 


133  SERMON   VI. 

from  the  beginning  above  the  ordinary  level  that  was 
reached  by  the  nation  generally  :\  throughout  its 
history  the  people  are  represented  as  needing  to  be 
taught  by  others,  as  declining  from  truth  by  which 
they  ouglit  to  have  been  guided,  as  falling  short  of 
the  ideal  propounded  to  them.  The  natural  ten- 
dencies of  the  nation  did  not  move  in  the  direction 
of  spiritual  religion.  There  is  no  ground  to  suppose 
that,  apart  from  the  special  illumination  vouchsafed 
/  to  the  great  teachers  who  originated,  or  sustained, 
the  principles  of  its  faith,  the  religious  history  of 
Israel  would  have  differed  materially  from  that  of  the 
kindred  nations  by  which  it  was  surrounded. 

I  close  with  some  thoughts,  suggested  by  what  has 
been  said,  on  the  permanent  importance  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  is  important  in  the  first  place,  on 
f  account  of  the  revelation  which  it  contains  of  the 
'  character  of  God,  Who  is  represented  in  it  as  a 
personal  Being,  Who,  though  depicted  under  the 
most  vivid  anthropomorphic  imagery,  is  nevertheless 
conceived  always  as  purely  spiritual,  is  never  confused 
either  with  the  world  or  with  material  emblems  of 
His  presence ;  Who  possesses  a  definite  moral 
character,  all-holy,  all-just,  all-wise  ;  Who  condescends 
to  enter  into  relations  of  c^race  with  His  intellisi-ent 
creatures  ;  Who  loves  man  and  will  in  turn  be  loved 
by  him  ;  Whose  anger  is  aroused  by  sin,  but  Who 
is  gracious  to  the  repentant  sinner  ;  Who  manifests 
Himself  in  His  reJemptive  purpose  to  Israel,  and 
designs  in  the  future  to  manifest    Himself  to  other 


THE   VOICE  OF   GOD   IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      1 39 

nations  as  well  ;  Who  leads  His  nation  step  by  step, 

as   with    a    father's    hand,   through   joy  and    sorrow, 

through  success  and  disappointment,  through  victory 

and  defeat,  to  know  Him  better,  and    to  learn  His 

character  more  clearly. 

Secondly,  the    Old   Testament   sets   before    us  an  ] 

j 
ideal  of  human  character  ;  it  stimulates  us  by  many  ' 

a  noble  example  of  faith  and  action.  Of  course  the 
characters  which  it  brings  before  us  are  not  faultless  ;  j 
some  are  held  up  as  warnings;  in  the  case  of  others, 
it  is  evident,  their  faults  are  fewer  and  less  grave  than 
they  would  have  been,  had  they  lived  where  the 
purifying  and  mellowing  influence  of  the  religion  of 
Israel  could  not  have  reached  them.  Even  in  the  pre- 
historic and  patriarchal  ages  the  principal  characters 
are  so  delineated  as  to  be  typically  significant  ;  they 
constitute  examples  to  be  either  imitated  or  shunned. 
In  a  later  age  we  see  a  man  like  David,  endowed 
with  high  personal  qualities,  amiable,  generous,  dis- 
interested, loyal,  "  a  born  ruler  of  men,"  in  spite  of 
the  occasion  of  his  great  fall,  and  in  spite  also  of 
some  other  occasions  on  which  he  was  not  superior 
to  the  spirit  of  his  age — manifesting  in  his  demeanour 
and  actions  generally  the  softening  influence  of  his 
religion.^  We  see  in  a  book  like  Ruth  religion  opera- 
tive in  a  lowlier  sphere,  sanctifying  and  elevating  the 

1  On  the  character  of  Uavid,  comp.  the  ju^t  and  appreciative 
remarks  of  Prof.  W.  R.  Smith  in  the  Encyclopccdia  B?iia?ifnca^ 
art.  ''  David"  (1877),  p.  841  ;  and  Prof.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  Aids  to 
tlie  Devojit  Study  of  Criticism  (1892),  j  p.  16-73  (esp.  pp.  67-70). 


140  SERMON    VT. 

ordinary  duties  of  life.  Wc  see  exemplified  in  the 
prophets  sincerity  of  purpose,  uncompromising  oppo- 
sition to  vice  and  sin,  constant  devotion  to  principle, 
firm  faith  in  a  higher  power.  We  see,  as  I  have 
ah'eady  said,  the  devotional  temper,  under  many 
different  aspects,  exemplified  in  the  Book  of  Psalms. 
The  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  produced  a  type 
of  character  which,  though  it  may  have  lacked  the 
finer  graces  which  the  teaching  and  example  of 
Christ  produced,  is  one  which  we  may  all  strive  to 
imitate.  Naturally  our  judgment  upon  individuals 
must  be  controlled  by  the  absolute  principles  of 
conduct  recognized  by  the  Old  Testament  itself;  nor 
must  wc  forget  that  in  some  respects  the  circumstances 
of  ancient  Israel  were  different  from  ours,  so  that 
maxims  of  action  beyond  the  pale  of  what  is  moral 
and  spiritual,  cannot  be  transferred  immediately  to 
ourselves :  but  in  its  predominant  features  human 
nature  is  the  same  in  all  ages  ;  so  that  the  lesson  as 
a  rule  can  be  applied  directly. 

Thirdly,  the  Old  Testament  has  an  intimate  and 
important  bearing  upon  the  Christian  faith.  As  a 
matter  of  history,  Judaism  was  the  cradle  of  Christi- 
anity. Viewed  humanly,  Christianity  in  its  origin 
took  the  form  of  a  reaction  against  the  paralyzing 
influences  of  Rabbinism,  a  reaction  resting  primarily 
upon  a  return  to  the  more  spiritual  religion  of  the 
prophets — a  call  of  which  the  first  note  was  struck 
by  John  the  Baptist,  the  "  heir  of  the  prophets,"  I 
am  speaking  of  it  in  its  initial  stage  :  of  course  many 


THE   VOICE  OF   GOD  IN    THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.      141 

fresh  elements  were  added  afterwards.  But  although 
Christianity  was  thus  a  reaction  against  the  un- 
spiritual  developments  of  the  later  legalism,  it  does 
not  need  to  be  pointed  out  how  deeply  its  roots  were 
laid  in  the  ancient  faith  of  Israel,  what  vital  doctrines 
it  appropriated  from  Israel's  teaching,  and  took  for 
granted  ;  or  how  the  long  and  gradual  preparation  of 
history  fitted  the  soil  for  its  growth.  Of  the  elements 
forming  the  preparation  in  history  for  Christ,  while 
some,  it  is  true,  were  contributed  from  other  quarters, 
those  of  central  and  material  importance  were  supplied 
by  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The -Old   Testament  is  also  of  importance,  for  us, 
evidentially.     When  all  deductions  which  exegetical 
and  critical  honesty  demands  have  been  made,  it  is 
impossible  to  overlook  or   deny  the   correspondence 
subsisting   between    the   anticipations   and    ideals  of 
Israel  and  their  fulfilment  in  Christ.    It  is  remarkable 
how,  while  most  nations  placed  their  visions  of  per- 
fection in  the  past  and  looked  back  sorrowfully  to  a 
golden  age  which  had  passed  for  ever  away,  the  Jews 
uniformly   looked    forward  :    how   their    most    repre- 
sentative men  expressed  expectations  which  nothing 
in  their  own  age  satisfied  ;   how  they  held  out,  and 
adhered  to,  ideals  which  remained  unrealized  ;    how, 
heedless  of  the  irony  of  history,  they  still  projected 
the  image  of  a  changed  social  state  ;  how  they  pro- 
claimed the  advent  of  a  Prophet  and  of  a  King,  who 
by  the  supreme  graces  of  his  person,  and  the  super- 
human  qualities   of  his  rule,  should    transform   and 


142  SERMON   VI. 

ref^enerate  human  nature ;  how  they  announced 
confidently  the  future  abolition  of  restrictions  which 
the  principles  of  their  own  religion  appeared  to  treat 
as  permanently  valid.  The  prophets  shadow  forth  a 
smnnmm  bonum,  transcending  experience,  in  which 
the  Gentiles  are  to  participate  equally  with  the 
Chosen  People,  and  which  they  believe  is  destined 
assuredly  to  be  realized.  And  when  we  look  more 
closely  we  perceive  that  distinct  lines  of  prophecy 
and  type  converge  upon  Christ,  and  He  fulfils  them. 
In  Him  the  ideals,  flung  forth  with  magnificent 
profusion  upon  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament,  are 
gathered  up  and  realized.  Special  predictions  are 
indeed  sometimes  doubtful  exegetically,  sometimes 
capable  of  being  otherwise  explained  ;  but  there  is 
one  truth  writ  too  large  in  the  Bible  to  be  obliterated 
or  debated,  that  the  Old  Testament  exhibits  the 
development,  by  successive  stages,  of  a  grand  redemp- 
tive purpose,  and  that  the  New  Testament  records 
its  completion.  In  the  Gospel  the  principles  inchoate 
in  the  Old  Testament  are  matured  ;  in  the  kingdom 
which  Christ  has  founded  the  aims  and  aspirations  of 
the  great  teachers  of  Israel  are  satisfied  and  fulfilled. 


SERMON    VU} 

INS  PI R  A  TION. 

Tim.  iii.  16-17  :  "  Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also  profit- 
able for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction 
which  is  in  righteousness  :  that  the  man  of  God  may  be 
complete,  furnished  completely  unto  every  good  v/ork." 

These  words  apply  primarily  to  the  Old  Testament. 
This  appears  not  only  from  the  fact  that  at  the  time 
when  they  were  written  the  New  Testament  was  still 
incomplete,  and  the  writings  which  existed  could 
hardly  have  acquired  the  recognized  authority  implied 
in  this  connection  by  the  Greek  term  ypacjin,  but  also 
from  considerations  arising  out  of  the  context.  In 
the  preceding  verses  the  Apostle  urges  Timothy  to 
abide  in  the  things  which  he  has  learned,  and  been 
assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  he  has  learned  them, 
that  "  from  a  babe  thou  hast  known  the  sacred  writ- 
ings which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation 
through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  Scrip- 
tures which  Timothy,  "  the  son  of  a  Jewess  which 
believed,"  whom    Taul    "  took    and    circumcised "    at 

^  Preached  at  St,  Mary's,  before  the  University,  on  Sunday, 
Nov.  I,  1 891. 


144  SERMON    VII. 

Lystra,^  had  known  from  a  babe,  could  only  have 
been  those  of  the  Old  Covenant ;  and  it  is  for  the 
purpose  of  enforcing  or  illustrating  the  statement  that 
these  Scriptures  are  able  to  make  wise  unto  salvation, 
that  the  Apostle  proceeds  with  the  words  that  I 
have  taken  as  my  text  :  "  Every  scripture  inspired 
of  God  is  also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  w^hich  is  in  righteousness  ; 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  complete,  furnished 
completely  unto  every  good  work." 

The  subject  suggested  by  my  text  is  one  on  which 
it  is  difficult  to  say  anything  which  has  not  been  said 
before.  I  can  only  invite  your  attention  this  morning 
to  some  aspects  of  it  which,  though  they  have  been 
often  pointed  to,  are  still  sometimes  overlooked,  and 
which  it  seems  important  to  bear  in  mind  at  the 
present  day. 

"  Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God."  What  does 
this  expression  signify  .?  We  inquire  in  vain  for  any 
authoritative  answer.  The  use  of  the  word  will  not 
guide  us,  for  no  other  Biblical  writer  employs  it. 
Scripture  itself  supplies  no  material  assistance  ;  for 
though  the  Biblical  writers  often  assert  the  Divine 
origin  of  particular  declarations  made  by  them,  there 
is  no  parallel  statement,  speaking  wath  greater  dis- 
tinctness, respecting  the  origin  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole. 
Our  Church  in  its  formularies  treats  the  Scriptures 
as  the  authoritative  rule  of  faith,  and  is  careful  to 
emphasize  their  sufficiency  unto  salvation  :  but  it  has 

^  Acts  xvi.  I,  3. 


INSPIRATION.  145 

given    no  definition  of  inspiration  ;    and    the  books 

constituting  Holy  Scripture  are  described  solely  by 

the  external   mark   of  being  canonical,   not  by  any 

internal    character   or  quality  affirmed   to  inhere   in 

them.     Nevertheless    men    have    assumed    that   they 

knew,  as  it  were,  intuitively  what  inspiration  meant, 

and  what  it  involved  :  they  have  framed  theories  of 

its  nature  accordingly,  and  have  demanded  that  the 

Bible  should  conform  to  them.     Some,  for  instance, 

have   imagined    inspiration    to    imply   the    complete 

suspension   of  the   human    personality,   so    that    the 

inspired  agent  resembled  a  flute  in  the   hands  of  a 

player.     Others,  not  going  quite  so  far  as  this,  have 

still  not  been  able  to  conceive  of  inspiration,  except 

as  determining   the  very  words   and    letters    of  the 

Bible.     Everything,  these  divines   have  said,  written 

under  inspiration  is  in  every  particular  and  in  every 

relation  infallible.     "  The  affirmations  of  Scripture  of 

all  kinds,  whether  of  spiritual  doctrine  or  duty,  or  of 

physical   or   historical    fact,    or   of  psychological    or 

philosophical  principle,  are  without   any  error  wdien 

the  ipsissima  verba  of  the  original    autographs    are 

ascertained    and    interpreted    in    their    natural    and 

intended    sense."      "  A    proved    error    in    Scripture 

contradicts  not  only  our  doctrine  but  the  Scripture 

claims,  and  therefore  its  inspiration  in  making  these 

claims."  ^     The  sentences  which   I  have  quoted  are 

1  Drs.  Hodge  and  Warfield,  in  a  joint  article  in  the  Presby- 
terian Review^  1881,  pp.  238,  245.  Quoted  by  LI.  J.  Evans  and 
H.  P.  Smith,  Biblical  Scholarship  and  Inspiration  (Cincinnati, 
1 891),  pp.  10,  12,92  f. 


146  SERMON    VIT. 

not  indeed  from  the  pen  of  an  Anglican  Divine  ;  but 
they  hardly  do  more  than  give  pointed  expression  to 
a  feeling  which  probably  has  often  been  shared  by 
members  of  our  own  communion.  It  is  important  to 
observe  that  for  the  statements  contained  in  them 
there  is  no  warrant  either  in  the  Bible  itself,  or  in  the 
formularies  of  our  Church.  They  are  the  speculations 
of  individual  theologians,  framed  upon  the  basis  of 
a  priori  conceptions  respecting  what  an  inspired  book 
must  be,  the  more  serious  consideration,  what  its 
claims  and  characteristics  actually  are,  being  left  out 
of  sight  altogether.  It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated 
that  the  only  legitimate  method  of  determining  what 
is  involved  in  the  idea  of  inspiration,  or  under  what 
conditions  it  manifests  itself,  is  by  an  examination  of 
the  books  that  are  described  as  inspired,  and  an 
impartial  study  of  the  facts  presented  by  them.  The 
Scriptures  nowhere  make  the  claim  of  absolute  and 
universal  inerrancy.  And  the  characteristics  of  the 
books  comprising  them  are  in  many  cases  very 
different  from  those  which  would  naturally  be  inferred 
from  the  first  of  the  statements  which  I  have  just 
read. 

Without  pretending  to  define  inspiration,  or  to 
determine  the  mystery  of  its  operation,  we  may,  I 
suppose,  say  that  what  we  mean  by  it  is  an  influence 
which  gave  to  those  who  received  it  a  unique  and 
extraordinary  spiritual  insigJit^  enabling  them  thereby, 
without  superseding  or  suppressing  the  human  facul- 
ties, but  rather  using  them  as  its  instruments,  to  declare 


INSPIRATION.  147 

in  different  degrees,  and  in  accordance  with  the  needs 
or  circumstances  of  particular  ages  or  particular 
occasions,  the  mind  and  purpose  of  God.  Every 
true  and  noble  thought  of  man  is  indeed,  in  a  sense, 
inspired  of  God  ;  but  with  the  Biblical  writers  the 
purifying  and  illumining  Spirit  must  have  been 
present  in  some  special  and  exceptional  measure. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  words  of  the  prophet,  or  other 
inspired  writer,  there  is  a  human  element,  not  less 
than  a  Divine  element,  and  neither  of  these  must  be 
ignored.  I  need  not  pause  in  this  place  for  the 
purpose  of  emphasizing  the  Divine  element  in 
Scripture  :  it  is  manifest  to  all.  The  "  heavenliness 
of  the  matter" — to  use  the  expressive  phrase  of  the 
Westminster  Confession — speaks  in  it  with  a  clear- 
ness which  none  can  mistake,  and  strikes  a  responsive 
chord  in  every  heart  that  is  open  to  receive  a  message 
from  above.  In  the  Old  Testament  we  read  how  God 
awakened  in  His  ancient  people  of  Israel  the  con- 
sciousness of  Himself:  and  we  hear  one  writer  after 
another  unfolding  different  aspects  of  His  nature,  and 
disclosing  with  increasing  distinctness  His  gracious 
purposes  towards  man.  In  the  pages  of  the  prophets 
there  shine  forth,  with  ineffaceable  lustre,  those 
sublime  declarations  of  truth  and  righteousness  and 
judgment  which  have  impressed  all  readers,  to  what- 
ever age  or  clime  or  creed  they  have  belonged.  In 
the  Psalms  we  hear  the  meditations  of  the  believing 
soul,  contemplating  with  adoring  wonder  the  mani- 
fold  operations  of  Providence,  or  pouring   forth   its 


148  SERMON    VII. 

emotions  in  converse  with  God.  The  historians  set 
before  us,  from  different  points  of  view,  the  successive 
stages  in  the  Divine  education  of  the  race.  They 
show  us  how  its  natural  tendencies  to  polytheism 
were  gradually  overcome.  They  show  us  how  Israel 
was  more  and  more  separated  from  its  neighbours,  in 
order  to  be  the  effectual  witness  and  keeper  of  Divine 
truth.  Sin  is  indeed  so  deeply  rooted  in  human 
nature  that  its  extirpation  upon  this  earth  is  not  to 
be  expected  ;  but  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament 
explain  to  us  how  the  ordinances  of  Israel  were 
adapted  to  counteract  its  influence,  and  to  maintain  a 
right  attitude  of  the  heart  towards  God.  And  they 
interpret  further  their  nation's  history  :  they  show  us 
how  a  providential  purpose  dominates  it  ;  how  it  is 
subservient  to  God's  aims  ;  how  the  past  leads  on  to 
better  possibilities  in  the  present ;  how  the  present 
points  to  still  better  possibilities  in  the  future.  And 
the  crown  and  consummation  of  Israel's  long  and 
chequered  past  is  set  before  us  in  the  pages  of  the 
New  Testament.  In  order  to  realize  what  the  Bible 
is,  we  have  but  to  imagine  what  the  literature  of 
Israel  would  have  been,  had  not  those  to  whom  we 
owe  it  been  illumined  in  some  special  measure  by  the 
light  from  heaven  :  even  though  its  external  history 
had  been  approximately  the  same,  its  historians,  its 
statesmen,  its  essayists,  its  poets,  would  assuredly 
^  J      have  written  in  a  very  different  strain. 

But  though  the  greatness  and  the  spiritual  import- 
ance   of  the  Divine  clement  in    Scripture  has  often 


INSPIRATION.  149 

and  rightly  engrossed  men's  attention,  still,  in  order 
properly  to  estimate  the  character  of  the  book  which 
is  termed  inspired,  or  the  revelation  as  we  actually 
possess  it,  the  human  element  must  not  be  overlooked. 
Not  only  is  Divine  truth  always  presented  through 
the  human  organ,  and  is  thus,  so  to  say,  coloured  by 
the  individuality  of  the  inspired  agent  by  whom  it  is 
enunciated,  but  it  is  impossible  to  close  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  its  enunciations  are  sometimes  relative  rather 
than  absolute  ;  they  are  adapted  to  the  circumstances 
of  particular  ages,  they  may  even  be  limited  by  the 
spiritual  capacity  of  the  particular  writer,  or,  in  the 
case  of  his  being  a  historian,  by  the  materials  or 
sources  of  information  which  he  had  at  his  disposal. 
The  revelation  of  the  Old  Testament  is  avowedly 
progressive  :  the  teaching  in  its  earlier  parts  may 
naturally  therefore  be  expected  to  be  imperfect  as 
compared  with  that  which  is  given  in  its  later  parts, 
or  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament.  We 
cannot  take  at  random  a  passage  from  the  inspired 
volume  and  say,  without  qualification  or  comparison 
with  other  passages,  that  it  is  absolute  truth,  or  the 
pure  word  of  God,  or  an  infallible  guide  to  conduct 
or  character. 

One  or  two  illustrations  will  explain  what  I  have  in 
view.  In  the  Book  of  Job  we  have  a  picture  of  the 
trial  of  the  pious  sufferer.  Job,  the  patriarch  of 
integrity  and  piety,  is  subjected  to  an  unexampled 
succession  of  calamities.  Under  the  weight  of  them 
he  bursts  forth  into  passionate  imprecations,  complain- 


150  SERMON    VII. 

ing  bitterly  of  the  misery  of  his  lot.  His  friends, 
whose  theory  of  life  can  only  account  for  suffering  as 
caused  by  some  antecedent  sin,  accuse  him  wrong- 
fully of  grave  offences  against  God  and  man.  The 
patriarch,  goaded  to  desperation  by  the  combined 
severity  of  h's  sufferings  and  the  cruel  taunts  of  his 
friends,  loses  control  of  himself :  he  charges  the 
Almighty  with  persecuting  him  maliciously,  with 
treating  him  wilfully  as  guilty  while  He  knows  him 
to  be  innocent,^  with  even  governing  the  world  at 
large  as  an  arbitrary  and  unjust  despot.^  Clearly  we 
cannot  here  treat  the  misapplied  truths  placed  in  the 
mouths  of  the  friends,  or  the  impious  sentences  hurled 
by  Job  against  the  Almighty,  as  the  absolute  word  or 
teaching  of  God.  The  parts  of  the  Book  of  Job  must 
be  read  in  the  light  supplied  by  the  whole :  the  in- 
spiration of  the  poem  is  to  be  found  in  the  manner  in 
which  the  theme  chosen  by  the  poet  is  developed,  and 
in  the  lessons  which  are  deducible  from  the  work  as  a 
whole.  The  Book  of  Job,  treated  as  a  whole,  declares 
more  than  one  great  truth  of  God's  government  of  the 
world,  but  it  contains  many  particular  statements,  of 
which  inerrancy  cannot,  in  any  reasonable  sense  of 
the  term,  be  predicated. 

The  relativity  of  inspiration  is  observable  again 
very  noticeably  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.  The 
melancholy  conclusion  to  which  the  author's  moral- 
izings  lead  him  is,  that  life  under  all  its  aspects  is 
dissatisfying  and  disappointing  ;  the  best  that  can  be 
^  Job  X.  6,  7.  2  Job  ix.  22-24  ;  ch.  xxi. 


INSPIRATION.  151 

done  with  it  is  to  enjoy,  while  it  lasts,  such  pleasures 
as  it  brings  with  it.  "  There  is  nothing  better  for  a 
man  than  that  he  should  eat  and  drink,  and  make  his 
soul  enjoy  good  in  his  labour."  ^  How  strangely  these 
words  fall  upon  our  ears  !  How  unlike  the  soaring 
aspirations  of  the  Psalmists,  or  the  spirit  of  generous 
philanthropy  which  breathes  so  often  in  the  discourses 
of  the  great  prophets  or  the  exhortations  of  the  law  ! 
The  teaching  of  Ecclesiastes,  if  followed  consistently, 
could  only  result  in  paralyzing  human  effort,  and 
stifling  every  impulse  of  an  ennobling  or  unselfish 
kind.  The  author's  theory  of  life  is  imperfect  ;  unto- 
ward and  depressing  circumstances,  as  it  seems, 
embittered  his  spirit,  and  concealed  from  him  a  fuller 
and  more  satisfying  view  of  the  sphere  of  human 
activity.^  His  conclusions  possess  only  a  relative 
value.  It  is  upon  life  not  absolutely,  but  as  he 
witnessed  and  experienced  it,  that  he  passes  his 
relentless  verdict,  *'  All  is  vanity."  It  was  the  par- 
ticular age  with  which  he  was  himself  acquainted  that 
prompted  him  to  judge  as  he  did  of  the  uselessness  of 
human  endeavour  ;  and  his  maxims,  at  least  so  far  as 
they  possess  a  negative  aspect,  cannot  be  applied  to 
a  different  age  without  material  qualiflcation  and 
reserve. 

Even  in  the  Psalms  the  same  fact  strikes   us.     Pro- 

^  Eccl.  ii.  24.  Comp.  iii.  12,  v.  18,  viii.  15,  where  the  con- 
clu=;ion  expressed  is  substantially  the  same. 

'^  Coinp.  Dean  Bradley's  helpful  and  su^f^estive  Lectures  on 
Ecclesiastes^  1885  (delivered  originally  in  Westminster  Abbey), 
p.  25  f. 


152  SERMON    VII. 

found  as  the  spirituality  of  the  Psalms  commonly  is, 
and  adequate  as  their  language  nearly  at  all  times  is 
to  give  words  to  the  deepest  religious  emotions  of  the 
devout  Christian,  it  is  undeniable  that  passages  occur 
in  the  Psalter  which  seem  to  him  to  strike  a  discord- 
ant note.  It  is  not  my  intention  this  morning  to 
dilate  upon  the  so-called  imprecatory  Psalms,  or  to 
review  the  various  explanations  and  excuses  which 
have  been  offered  for  their  presence  in  the  Psalter : 
after  all  has  been  said,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  in 
the  words  of  the  most  recent  commentator  on  the 
Psalms,  that  these  utterances  "  belong  to  the  spirit  ot 
the  Old  Testament,  and  not  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  by  it  they  must  be  judged."  ^  Nor,  though  this  is 
sometimes  overlooked,  do  they  stand  alone  in  the  Old 
Testament :  Jeremiah  more  than  once  breaks  out 
into  invocations  of  vengeance  against  his  personal 
enemies,  which  differ  in  no  substantial  respect  from 
those  which  we  read  in  the  Book  of  Psalms.^  And 
exquisite  as  is  the  pathos  which  breathes  in  the  137th 
Psalm,  as  the  poet  contrasts  the  land  of  his  exile 
with  his  beloved  ancestral  home,  do  we  not  all  feel 
the  difference  between  his  closing  verse,  "  Happy 
shall  he  be  that  taketh  thy  little  ones  and  dasheth 
them  against  the  stones,"  and  the  words  of  that  other 
Psalmist  who  wrote,  "  I  will  make  mention  of  Rahab 
and  Babylon  as  them  that  know  me".?^     It  is  plain 

^  Prof.  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick,  The  Psalms  {Book  /,),  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Bible  fo?'  Scliools  and  Colleges,  p.  Ixxv. 
2  Cf.  Jor.  xviii.  21-23  i  ^Iso  xi.  20,  xv.  15,  xvii.  iS. 
2  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  4. 


INSPIRATION.  153 

that  there  exist  declarations  in  the  Bible  which  are 
not  free  from  the  tinge  of  human  infirmity  and  human 
passion.  But  abundant  as  are  the  evidences  of  the 
elevating  and  sanctifying  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
upon  the  writers  in  both  Testaments,  we  have  no 
antecedent  right  to  suppose  that  every  writer  is  in 
precisely  the  same  degree  subordinated  to  it. 
Neither  Scripture  itself,  nor  the  judgment  of  the 
Church,  authorizes  us  to  affirm  that  every  statement, 
or  even  every  book,  stands  upon  the  same  moral  or 
religious  plane,  or  is  in  the  same  measure  the  expres- 
sion of  the  Divine  mind  :  the  influences  of  time  and 
place,  of  circumstances  and  situation,  of  scope  and 
aim,  of  temper  and  opportunity,  must  all  be  taken 
into  account,  before  we  can  rightly  judge  of  the 
precise  sense  in  which  parts  of  Scripture  are  to  be 
regarded  as  the  word  of  God,  and  of  the  precise 
degree  in  which  they  individually  claim  to  be 
authoritative. 

So  also  there  are  phenomena  in  the  historical  books 
which  are  inconsistent  with  a  priori  theories  of  inspir- 
ation, as  well  as  with  hard  and  fast  definitions  of  the 
Word  of  God.  If  there  is  a  subject  on  which  precision 
of  statement  might  antecedently  have  been  expected, 
it  is  surely  in  the  record  of  the  discourses  of  Christ. 
Yet  here,  while  there  are  ample  independent  reasons 
(on  which  I  cannot  now  dwell)  for  holding  that  in  all 
essentials  they  have  been  transmitted  to  us  faithfully, 
in  matters  of  verbal  exactitude  no  small  freedom  has 
been  permitted.     In  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  sayings  of 


154  SERMON    VII. 

our  Lord,  in  origin  and  occasion  manifestly  the  same, 
are  often  presented  in  a  more  or  less  divergent 
literary  form  :  St.  Luke  in  particular  appears  to  have 
been  apt  to  partially  recast  both  the  narratives  and 
tlie  discourses  which  reached  him,  and  to  accommo- 
date them  to  his  own  style.  In  the  disposition  of 
their  materials  also  the  Evangelists  sometimes  differ 
remarkably  :  matter,  and  to  all  appearance  the  same 
matter,  which  in  one  Gospel  is  aggregated,  in  another 
is  found  dispersed.  The  combination  of  resemblances 
and  differences  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  is  a  most 
singularly  literary  feature  ;  and  its  explanation  con- 
stitutes a  problem  of  great  perplexity,  in  which,  though 
certain  fixed  points  appear  to  have  been  gained,  much 
still  remains  uncertain.  But  whatever  solution  be 
adopted,  or  even  though  the  problem  be  insoluble, 
it  is  manifest  that  some  editorial  modification  and 
adjustment  of  the  material  has  taken  place  in  each. 
And  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  a  comparison  with  the 
Synoptics  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  the  Epistles  of 
St.  John  on  the  other,  makes  it  impossible  to  doubt 
that  the  actual  words  of  Christ  have  often  been 
transfused  into  the  individuality  of  the  Evangelist, 
and  re-shaped  in  his  own  phraseology.^     So  far,  even 

^  Comp.  Archdeacon  Watkins'  Bampton  Lectures  (1890),  p. 
426  f.  ;  Sanday,  The  Fourth  Gospel,  pp.  73  f,  128-130,  222  f,; 
and  in  The  Co7iteinporary  Review^  Oct.  1 891,  pp.  536,  538  f.,  and 
The  Expositor^  Nov.  1891,  p.  ■})'}y'}y  ff.,  May  1892,  p.  390  :  "  We 
are  dealing  [in  the  case  of  St.  John]  with  a  strong,  creative  per- 
sonality which  could  not  help  acting  upon  the  deposit  committed 
to  it,  not  a  mere  neutral  medium  through  which  it  might  pass 
without  alteration,'' 


INSPIRATION.  155 

in  the  most  sacred  parts  of  Scripture,  is  the  truthful- 
ness of  the  picture,  as  a  whole,  dissociated  from  the 
mechanical  correctness  of  its  individual  parts,  and 
made  independent  either  of  the  chronological  pre- 
cision of  the  annalist,  or  of  the  verbal  exactitude  of 
the  stenographist. 

Nor  does  the  Old  Testament  teach  a  different 
lesson.  Compilation,  diversity  of  origin,  variety  of 
motive  and  standpoint,  are  the  characteristics  which 
disclose  themselves  when  the  historical  books  are 
examined  with  sufficient  minuteness  and  care. 
Traditions,  shaped  partly  by  oral  transmission,  partly 
by  the  hand  of  the  narrator,  rather  than  the  imme- 
diate testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  are  what,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  doubt,  are  here  sometimes  presented  to  us. 
Dramatic  personification,  which  in  a  more  or  less 
mature  form  has  held  such  a  prominent  and  often 
such  an  important  place  in  the  literature  of  the  world, 
is  seen  also  to  be  not  unrepresented  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Why  should  it  not  be  so  ?  Why  should 
modes  and  styles  of  composition  which,  except  by 
extreme  Puritans,  have  always  been  recognized  as 
the  legitimate  vehicle  of  human  thought,  as  well  as 
a  powerful  instrument  of  education,  be  excluded  from 
the  consecrating  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ?  If 
the  imagination  be  a  faculty  granted  by  God  to  man, 
and  capable,  as  all  must  allow,  of  being  employed  in 
instruction  and  edification,  why,  where  no  fact,  con- 
ditioning a  theological  verity,  is  concerned,  may  it 
nut  have  been  subordinated   to  the   Divine  plan   for 


156  SERMON   VII. 

the  Spiritual  advancement  of  the  race?  Where 
nothing  is  defined  as  to  the  nature  or  the  limits  of 
the  inspiring  Spirit's  work,  with  what  justice  are 
particular  spheres  to  be  excluded,  as  it  were  upon 
principle,  from  the  range  of  its  operation  ?  Do  not  the 
opening  words  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  authorize 
us  to  expect  variety  of  degree,  not  less  than  variety 
of  form,  in  the  manifestation  of  Himself  which  God 
made  through  the  writers  of  the  older  dispensation  ? 
Through  the  history  of  Israel  as  a  nation,  through 
the  lives  of  its  representative  men,  and  through  the 
varied  forms  of  its  national  literature,  God  has 
revealed  Himself  to  the  world.  But  this  revelation 
was  not  made  in  its  completeness  at  a  single  moment  : 
it  was  subjected  externally  to  the  conditions  which 
govern  human  history ;  it  advanced  progressively ; 
and  it  is  not  more  than  consonant  with  the  idea  of 
progress  that  at  each  stage  it  should  be  regulated  by 
the  opportunities,  and  adapted  to  the  capabilities,  of 
those  to  whom  it  was  primarily  addressed. 

Nothing  is  more  destructive  of  the  just  claims  of 
Christianity  than  a  false  theory  of  inspiration  :  nothing 
has  led  to  more  fatal  shipwrecks  of  faith  than  the 
acceptance  in  youth  of  a  priori  views  of  what  an 
inspired  book  must  be,  which  the  study  of  maturer 
years  has  demonstrated  only  too  cogently  to  be 
untrue  to  fact.  It  needs,  indeed,  less  than  the 
"  proved  error  "  to  confute  "  our  doctrine  "  :  how  wide 
an  interval  separates  that  doctrine  from  the  "  Scrip- 
ture claims"  with  which  it  has  been  so  complacently 


INSPIRATION.  157 

and  yet  so  naively  identified,  is  not,  alas !  always 
perceived.  Let  us,  while  we  adhere  firmly  to  thc/^^/ 
of  inspiration,  refrain  from  defining,  and  especially 
from  limiting-,  the  range  or  mode  of  its  operation, 
until  we  have  familiarized  ourselves,  as  well  as  may 
be,  with  the  varied  contents,  and  w^ith  the  often 
remarkable  relations  subsisting  between  the  different 
parts,  of  the  volume  which  we  term  inspired.  When 
we  have  done  this,  it  will  hardly  fail  but  that  our 
conception  of  its  scope  will  be  broadened  and  en- 
larged. It  seems,  indeed,  to  be  sometimes  appre- 
hended that  if  any  modification  be  allowed  in  the 
popular  conception  of  an  inspired  w^ork,  men's  respect 
for  the  Bible  will  be  impaired.  The  apprehension, 
though  the  feeling  which  prompts  it  may  be  sympa- 
thized with  and  appreciated,  is  surely  a  mistaken  one. 
Men's  respect  for  the  Bible  will  be  most  securely  won, 
and  its  authority  most  effectually  established,  by  the 
truth  about  it  being  set  before  them,  and  by  claims 
not  being  raised  on  its  behalf  which  it  does  not  raise 
itself.  Men's  respect  for  it,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  some- 
times sadly  diminished  by  the  forced  and  unnatural 
expedients  to  which  apologists  have  resorted,  for  the 
purpose  of  reconciling  the  facts  which  the  Bible 
actually  presents  wdth  those  which,  according  to  their 
own  theory  of  its  origin  and  contents,  ought  to  be 
found  in  it.  Shall  we  not  do  well  to  remember 
Hooker's  caution:  "As  incredible  praises  given  to 
men  do  often  abate  and  impair  the  credit  of  the 
deserved   commendation,  so  we    must   likewise   take 


158  SERMON   VII. 

great  heed  lest  by  attributing  to  Scripture  more  than 
it  can  have,  the  incredibihty  of  that  do  cause  even 
those  things  which  indeed  it  hath  abundantly  to  be 
less  reverently  esteemed  "  ?  1 

It  may  be  doubted  from  this  point  of  view  whether 
the  common  use  of  the  expression,  "  Word  of  God," 
as  a  term  descriptive  of  the  entire  Bible,  does  not 
sometimes  give  rise  to  misunderstanding.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  uncertainties  of  transmission,  trans- 
lation, and  interpretation,  involved  in  many  passages, 
the  identification  of  both,  which  it  virtually  implies, 
leaves  out  of  sight  that  important  aspect  of  the  whole 
truth  that  the  message  from  God  which  the  Bible 
brings  to  man  is  always  mediated  through  a  human 
channel :  it  tends  to  generate  a  confusion  between 
the  Divine  thought  and  the  human  imagery,  or 
human  form  of  composition,  under  which  it  is  pre- 
sented. The  figurative  language  of  the  prophets, 
or  the  imaginative  presentation  of  a  great  truth 
in  a  book  like  the  poem  of  Job,  will  illustrate  what 
I  mean.  Applied  to  the  Bible,  as  a  whole,  the 
expression,  "  Word  of  God,"  seems  to  savour  of  the 
old  theory  of  inspiration,  which  no  one  now  cares  to 
maintain,  according  to  which  the  Holy  Ghost  dictated 
to  the  Biblical  writers  the  very  terms  which  they  were 
to  use  :  it  seems  to  place  every  part  of  the  Bible  upon 
precisely  the  same  spiritual  level  :  it  seems  to  imply 
an  absoluteness,  a  finality,  a  perfection,  which,  as  the 
instances  that  I  have  referred  to  sufficiently  show,  do 
1  EccL  Pol.,  II.  viii.  7. 


INSPIRATION.  159 

not  inhere  in  every  particular  statement  which  Scrip- 
ture contains.  No  doubt  the  term  could  be  so  defined 
as  to  make  it  co-extensive  with  the  whole  Bible ;  but 
there  would  always  be  the  danger  of  the  technical 
definition  being  forgotten,  and  the  popular  acceptation 
being  substituted  for  it.  And  it  should  be  carefully 
remembered  that  this  use  of  the  term  is  not  Biblical. 
In  the  Old  Testament  the  term  **  Word  of  God"  is 
applied  chiefly  to  particular  declarations  of  the 
purposes  or  promises  of  God,  especially  to  those 
made  by  the  prophets  :  in  the  New  Testament  it 
denotes  commonly  the  gospel  message,  the  tidings  of 
salvation  proclaimed  first  upon  the  lips  of  the  Saviour, 
carried  afterwards  by  His  apostles  to  different  quarters 
of  the  globe.^  But  it  is  never  applied  to  the  historical 
books  (of  either  Testament),  or  to  the  Wisdom- 
literature,  or  even  to  the  Psalms.  We  are  thus  not 
in  a  position  to  say  whether  the  Biblical  writers 
themselves  would  have  so  applied  it.  It  is  certiin 
that  no  historical  writer  claims  to  draw  his  informa- 
tion from  a  supernatural  source  ;  ^  and  it  is  at  least 
worthy  of  consideration  whether  the  record  of  a 
revelation,  though  legitimately  termed  "  inspired," 
is  itself   legitimately  regarded   as   identical  with  the 

1  E.  g.  Luke  V.  I  ;  Acts  vi.  7,  viii.  14,  25,  xi.  i,  xii.  24,  xiii.  5,  7, 
46,  &c.  ;  I  Thess.  i.  8,  ii.  13  ;  2  Thess.  iii.  i  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  17,  iv.  2. 

2  Note  especially,  in  this  connection,  the  preface  to  St.  Luke's 
Gospel.  The  Evangelist,  as  Prof.  Sand  ay  remarks  {The  Oracles 
of  God,  p.  72),  assumes  no  supernatural  direction,  he  claims 
merely  to  have  used  the  care  and  research  that  would  be  expected 
of  a  conscientious  and  painstaking  historian. 


l6o  SERMON    Vll. 

"  Word  of  God."  In  the  official  formularies  of  our 
Church  there  is  an  elasticity  in  the  use  of  the  ex- 
pression, in  strict  conformity  with  Biblical  usage — as 
when  the  priest  is  described  not  by  the  mechanical 
term  of  reader^  but  as  the  Dispenser  or  Preacher  of 
God's  word — which  shows  that  it  must  not  be  treated 
as  if  it  denoted  solely  or  principally  a  given  collection 
of  written  statements,  but  that  it  properly  denotes 
the  message  sent  by  God  to  man,  which  may  be 
translated  into  very  different  forms,  and  modified,  in 
external  representation,  to  suit  the  needs  of  different 
occasions.  I  venture  to  think  that,  especially  in 
dealing  with  persons  of  limited  education,  it  would  be 
judicious  to  exercise  some  reserve  in  the  use  of  this 
term,  and  to  prefer  modes  of  expression  which,  while 
not  less  just  to  fact,  might  be  less  open  to  miscon- 
struction.^ 

But  I  have  left  unnoticed  what  is  really  the  primary 
affirmation    of   my  text.     The  context   in  any  case, 

^  It  ought  perhaps  to  be  stated  distinctly,  for  the  purpose  of 
obviating  misconception,  that  the  remarks  on  the  text  are  not 
intended  to  apply  to  a  description  of  the  Scriptures  as  *'the 
Word  of  God,"  if  accompanied  by  some  suitable  qualification 
such  as  "the  Word  of  God,  7nediated by  a  hinnan  agency. ^^  Nor 
does  the  formula,  which  was  often  heard  in  the  controversies  of 
a  past  generation,  "The  Bible  is  not  the  Word  of  God,  it  only 
contains  it,"  correspond  with,  or  express,  the  writer's  view. 
The  only  sense  in  which  he  regards  the  Scriptures  as  "contain- 
ing'' the  Word  of  God,  is  that  in  which — if  he  may  be  allowed 
to  adopt  the  .simile  of  an  old  Divine,  quoted  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs,  The  Bible,  the  Church,  and  the  Reason  (1892),  p.  loi  — 
the  lantern  "contains  "  the  light,  transmitting  some  rays  more 
purely  and  completely  than  others. 


INSPIRATION.  l6l 

and,  if  the  Revised  Version  be  adopted,  the  terms  of 
the  text  itself,  shows  ihat  the  point  which  the  Apostle 
desires  to  emphasize  is  not  the  particular  sense  in 
which  he  held  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  to  be 
inspired,  but  the  practical  teaching  to  be  derived 
from  them.  "  But  abide  thou  in  the  things  that  thou 
hast  learned,  knowing  .  .  .  that  from  a  babe  thou 
hast  known  the  sacred  writings,  which  are  able  to 
make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is 
in  Christ  Jesus.  Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God  is 
also  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness  ;  that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  complete,  completely  furnished 
unto  every  good  work."  The  practical  value  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  not  dependent  upon  a  theory  of 
the  sense  in  which  it  is  inspired;  and  those  who  judge 
the  literature  of  Israel  from  what  may  be  termed  a 
critical  as  opposed  to  a  traditional  standpoint  must 
dispute  the  claim,  which  representatives  of  the  latter 
seem  sometimes  to  make,  that  they  alone  are  con- 
scious of  the  worth  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  enshrine  truths  of  permanent  and 
universal  validity.  Motives,  precepts,  lessons,  as  serv- 
iceable now  as  they  were  in  a  distant  past,  start  up 
out  of  its  pages.  In  spite  of  the  special  and,  it  might 
even  be  said,  narrowing  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  nearly  all  written,  in  spite  of  the  national 
sentiment  which  was  a  natural,  and  indeed  a  necessary, 
condition  of  the  history  of  Israel,  its  great  writers 
continually  rise  above  all   the  limiting  influences   of 

M 


1 62  SERMON   VII. 

time  or  place,  and  proclaim  truths  respecting  God 
and  man,  which,  as  they  constituted  the  foundation 
upon  wliich  the  Christian  faith  was  reared,  so  they 
have  now  been  made  the  priceless  and  inalienable 
possession  of  humanity.  We  hear  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment exhortations  to  righteousness,  and  the  rebuke 
of  sin.  We  have  set  before  us  types  for  our  imitation, 
and  examples  for  our  warning.  We  learn  truths  from 
it  which  we  might  in  vain  seek  to  discover  for  ourselves, 
the  counsels  of  our  Heavenly  Father  for  the  guidance 
of  His  children,  the  temper  and  frame  of  mind  by 
which  He  would  have  them  respond  to  His  call.  In 
manifold  tones  the  Voice  of  God  speaks  to  us  from 
its  pages.  The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
the  record  of  a  revelation,  having  the  practical  aim  of 
raising  men's  thoughts  towards  heaven,  and  prompting 
them  to  righteousness  and  holiness  of  life,  "that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  complete,  completely  furnished 
unto  every  good  work."  They  may  not  exhibit  tb.e 
characteristics  which  theologians  have  sometimes 
pictured  them  as  possessing  ;  but  if  we  go  to  them 
in  search  of  the  word  of  God,  we  shall  infallibly  find 
it.  May  we  so  read  them  that  they  may  exert  upon 
us  the  effect  for  which  St.  Paul  impressed  the  study 
of  them  upon  Timothy !  May  they  help  to  furnish 
us  completely  unto  every  good  work,  and  to  make  us 
wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus ! 


SERMON    VIII.i 

THE  FIRST  CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS. 

Job  xxxviii.  4:  "Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  earth  ?  declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding." 

The  thoughts  of  the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament 
turn  often  to  the  contemplation  of  Nature.  Besides 
drawing  from  it  frequent  illustrations  in  the  way 
of  analogy  or  metaphor,  they  contemplate  it  more 
directly:  they  regard  it  sometimes  in  the  mystery 
of  its  origin,  sometimes  as  an  ever-present  declaration 
of  the  great  attributes  of  the  Creator.  One  writer, 
in  the  familiar  chapter  with  which  the  Bible  opens, 
prefixes  to  his  history  of  the  antiquities  of  his  nation 
a  view  of  the  stages  by  which  this  earth  was  adapted 
to  become  the  habitation  of  man.  Another  writer, 
in  that  unique  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Job  from 
which  my  text  is  taken,  meets  a  great  moral  difficulty 
by  pointing  to  our  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the 
secrets  of  the  physical  universe,  as  analogrus  to  our 
imperfect  comprehension  of  the  moral  government 
cf  the  world.      The   author   of   Psalm  xix.,  in  words 

^  Preached  in  the  Cathedral,  Christchurch,  on  Sunday,  Nov. 
29,  1885. 


164  SERMON    VIII. 

which  the  music  of  Haydn  has  made  doubly  familiar 
to  us,  points  to  the  spectacle  of  the  heavens  by  night 
as  a  continual  witness  to  the  work  of  the  Divine 
artificer,  speaking  the  same  silent  but  expressive 
language  wherever  the  canopy  of  the  skies  extends.^ 
In  Psalm  civ. — that  "  Poem  of  Creation,"  as  it  has 
been  termed — we  are  led  to  contemplate  the  provi- 
dence by  which  the  wants  of  small  and  great  are 
supplied,  the  purposes  which  different  objects  sub- 
serve ;  while  the  countless  forms  of  animal  life  are 
set  before  us  as  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
— "  Thou  hidest  thy  face,  they  are  troubled  ;  thou 
gatherest  in  their  breath,  they  die,  and  return  to  their 
dust.  Thou  sendest  forth  thy  spirit,  they  are  created  ; 
and  thou  renewest  the  face  of  the  earth." 

Each  of  these  aspects  of  nature  would  supply 
material  for  reflexion  ;  but  I  propose  to  confine  myself 
to-day  to  some  thoughts  suggested  by  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis.  I  need  not  quote  its  words  ;  for 
in  its  general  outline  it  will  be  familiar  to  all  who 
hear  me.  Much  has  been  written  and  said  upon  it — 
so  much,  indeed,  that  the  materials  for  profitable 
consideration  might  well  appear  to  be  exhausted. 
But  the  subject  is  one  of  those  in  which  every  age 
finds  a  fresh  interest,  and  by  the  study  of  which  every 

^  V.  4  :  "  Their  line  (/.  e.  the  measuring-line  circumscribing 
their  domain)  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their  words 
unto  the  end  of  the  world."  The  form  of  the  comparison  is  as  in 
Prov.  XXV.  3,  20,  25,  xxvi.  3,  14  and  elsewhere  (in  the  Hebrew, 
the  form  of  all  these  resembles  that  of  xxv.  3,  xxvi.  3  in  the 
English  Version). 


THE    FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS.  1 65 

generation  has  something  to  learn.     Let  me  therefore 
invite  your  attention  to  two  questions  connected  with 
it.     Let  us  inquire,  firstly,  Does  the  picture  which  it 
affords  of  the  past  history  of  the  world   agree  with 
that  which  is  disclosed  by  science  ?  and,  secondly,  if  it 
should  prove  that  this  question  must  be  answered  in 
the  negative,  What  is  the  true  value  and  import  of  the 
narrative  .-*    At  the  outset,  we  are  met  with  a  question 
of  interpretation.     In  what  sense  are  the  six  "  days  " 
spoken  of  in  the  narrative  to  be  understood  ?     For- 
merly, no  difficulty  arose  upon  this  point.     Although, 
by  a    few,  the  term    was    understood    not    of  actual 
days,  but  figuratively,  still,  as  the  real    antiquity  of 
the   earth  was   not   suspected,  no  one  who  accepted 
the   general    teaching   of   Christian   theology    found 
any  difficulty  in    believing  that  the  visible  universe 
was    created    by   the   Almighty   in    six    literal    days, 
about  4000  years  before   the   birth   of  Christ.^     But 
knowledge  has  advanced,  and  this  position  is  no  longer 
tenable.     Geology   has   become    a    science,   and    has 
disclosed    to    us,    upon    evidence   which    cannot    be 
gainsaid,  the   immeasurable   antiquity  of  our   globe, 
the   great   physical   changes    which    its   surface    has 
undergone,  the  innumerable  multitude  of  living  forms 
by  which   in   ascending  progression,  from   the   lowly 
marine   organisms  which    mark  the  dawn   of  life,  it 
has    been  successively  peopled.      Those  white   cliffs 
which    tower  out  of  the  sea    in   m;iny  parts   of  our 
southern  coasts  arc  built  up  from  the  sliclls  of  minute 
1  See,  for  instance,  the  passage  quoted  above,  p.  37. 


l66  SERMON    VIII. 

creatures,  deposited,  at  the  rate  of  a  few  inches  a 
century,  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  and  afterwards 
by  some  mighty  upheaval  of  the  earth's  crust  raised 
aloft  above  the  waves.  Our  coal  measures  are  the 
remains  of  mighty  forests,  astir  with  a  multitudinous 
insect  life,  which  through  untold  centuries  have  come 
and  gone,  storing  up  the  energy  poured  forth  by  the 
sun  for  our  consumption  and  enjoyment.  These  are 
but  two  of  the  many  instances  which  might  be  given, 
demonstrating  the  immense  antiquity  of  our  globe. 
Our  earth  bears  within  itself  the  marks  of  a  past 
history  reaching  back  to  an  age  incalculably  anterior 
to  that  at  which  man  first  appeared  upon  it.  If  now 
the  term  day  is  to  be  understood  literally,  it  is  clear 
that  the  narrative  of  Genesis  cannot  accord  with  the 
teaching  of  geology  :  are  we  at  liberty,  then,  to  under- 
stand it  in  any  other  way  } 

This  question  must  be  answered,  not  by  a  discussion 
as  to  the  proper  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  term  em- 
ployed (respecting  which  there  is  no  doubt),  but  by 
inquiring  whether  or  not  it  may  have  been  used  by 
the  writer  metaphorically.  Although  there  are  no 
precise  parallels  in  the  Old  Testament  for  such  a 
metaphorical  use  of  the  word,  it  seems,  on  the  whole, 
reasonable  to  concede  it  here.  The  author,  it  may 
be  supposed,  while  conscious  that  the  Divine  opera- 
tion could  not  be  measured  by  human  standards  of 
time,  nevertheless  was  desirous  of  accommodating 
artificially  the  period  of  creation  to  the  divisions  of 
the  week ;    and    hence    adopted    the    term    day  in   a 


THE   FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS.  1 6/ 

figurative  sense.  If  this  view  be  correct,  the  term 
will  have  been  used  by  him  consciously,  as  a  metaphor, 
for  the  purpose  of  his  representation,  it  being  really 
his  intention  to  designate  by  it  a  period  of  time.  The 
several  "  days,"  with  their  "  mornings  "  and  "  evenings," 
will  thus  be  the  form  under  which  the  work  is  repre- 
sented as  taking  place  ;  they  will  not  constitute  part 
of  the  reality.^  When,  however,  it  has  been  granted, 
as  at  least  a  possible  interpretation,  that  the  "  days  " 
may  represent  periods,  has  the  required  end  been 
attained  ?  Does  the  order  in  which  the  different 
parts  of  the  visible  universe  were  produced,  as  stated 
in  the  narrative  of  Genesis,  accord  with  the  order 
which  is  taught  by  science  ?  The  answer,  though  it 
may  cause  surprise  to  some,  must  be  given  explicitly 
and  frankly.  They  do  7iot  accord.  Not  only  do 
they  not  accord,  but  the  disagreements  are  of  a  nature 
which  it  is  hazardous  and  precarious  to  count  upon 
future  discovery  removing.  Even  if  we  shrink  from 
affirming  that  they  cannot  so  be  removed,  we  must 
admit  that  they  are  of  a  character  which  makes  it 
prudent  not  to  rely  upon  such  a  contingency.  Prac- 
tically, in  other  words,  we  must  reckon  with  them 
now.  It  will  be  sufficient  if  I  point  out  briefly  the 
two  principal  discrepancies.  According  to  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  the  earth  was  clothed  with  vegetation  two 
days,  or  periods,  before  animal  life  appeared  upon  it. 
According  to  the  evidence  of  the  rocks,  plant  life,  from 
the  beginning,  in  its  earliest  and  humblest  forms,  was 
1  See  Note  A  (p.  177). 


l68  SERMON   viir. 

accompanied  by  similar  humble  types  of  animal  life  : 
and    the  two  advanced   gradually  together,  side   by 
side,  till  the  higher  and  more  complete  types  of  each 
were  attained.  Secondly,  the  formation  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  not  merely  after  the  creation  of  the  earth,  but 
after  the  appearance  upon  it  of  vegetation,  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  entire  conception  of  the  solar  system 
as  revealed    by  science,  not  less  than  with  the  pro- 
cess by  which  that  system  itself  is  supposed  to  have 
come  into  being.     Both  the  stars  in  their  far-distant 
courses,  and    the    planetary  system  with  which    this 
globe  is  more  immediately  connected,  form  a  vast  and 
wonderfully  constituted  order,  so  marked  by  correla- 
tion of  structure  and  unity  of  design  as  to  forbid  the 
supposition  that  a  particular  body,  such  as  this  earth, 
was  created  prior  to  the  whole  of  which  it  is  a  single 
and  subordinate  part.    Nor  is  this  all.    The  commonly 
accepted  theory  of  the  formation  of  the  solar  system 
does  not  permit  the  consolidation  of  the  earth,  and 
the  appearance  upon  it  of  seas  and  vegetation  at  a 
time    while    the    substance    of  which    the    sun    was 
composed  was  still  in  a  diffused  state.     Not  to  enter 
here  into  further  details,  the  conclusion,  whether  we 
will  it  or  not,  is  forced    upon  us  that   both  geology 
and    astronomy  directly  contradict    the  narrative  of 
Genesis.^ 

In   face  of  these  discrepancies  (which  are  not   all 
that  might   be   mentioned),  what  attitude   are  we  to 
assume  ?     Are  we,  with  one  class  of  thinkers,  to  con- 
1  Sec  Note  B  (p.  177). 


THE   FIRST   CHAPTER  OF   GENESIS.  169 

elude  that  their  presence  is  fatal  to  the  entire  revelation 
of  which  apparently  they  form  part?  This  would  be 
a  hasty  and  ill-considered  conclusion.  Or  are  we  to 
imitate  others,  and,  doing  violence  now  to  the  testi- 
mony of  science,  now  to  the  express  words  of  Genesis, 
to  seek  to  reconcile  what — however  reluctantly  we 
may  make  the  admission — is  irreconcilable  ?  We 
embark  then  upon  an  enterprise  doomed  to  failure. 
Or  is  the  presence  of  these  discrepancies  an  indication 
that  we  must  modify  our  conception  of  the  scope  of 
the  narrative,  and  consider  whether  we  have  not 
misapprehended  its  true  purport ;  whether  its  true 
purport  is  not  to  be  sought  in  a  different  direction 
alto^rether  from  that  which  we  had  imagined  ?  It  is 
difficult  not  to  think  that  the  last  is  the  wise  and 
right  alternative  to  adopt.  These  very  discrepancies 
are  an  indication  that  the  real  object  of  the  narrative 
in  Genesis  is  not  to  teach  scientific  truth,  but  to  teach 
religions  truth.  If  this,  its  true  purport,  be  kept  in 
view,  it  will  be  seen  neither  to  come  into  collision 
with  science,  nor  to  need  reconciliation  with  it.  It 
moves  in  a  different  plane  altogether.  From  this  point 
of  view,  as  we  shall  sec,  its  teaching  has  an  inde- 
pendent value  of  its  own,  and  can  never  become 
antiquated  or  obsolete.  Let  me  indicate,  in  its  main 
features,  what  this  teaching  is. 

One  object  of  the  narrative  will  be  evident  at  once : 
it  is  to  show,  in  opposition  to  the  crude  conceptions 
current  in  m;my  parts  of  the  ancient  world,  that  the 
world   is  not  self-originated  ;  that  it  was  called   into 


I/O  SERMON    VIII. 

existence,    and    brought    gradually    into    its    present 
state,  at    the  will    of  a   Spiritual    Being,  prior  to  it, 
independent  of  it,  deliberately  planning  each   stage 
of   its    development.       The    dignified    and    sublime 
representation  which  it  gives  is   in  marked    contrast 
to  the  self-contradictory,  grotesque  speculations  which 
form   the    usual    staple    of   the  ancient  cosmogonies. 
This  feature  is  to  be  the   more  insisted  on,  because 
it  is   the   one  which  distinguishes   it  essentially  from 
that  Chaldaian  account  of  the  Creation,  recovered  a 
few  years  ago  from  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  with  which 
it    has    been    sometimes    compared.^      There   exists 
indeed    a   similarity  of  outline,  sufficient   to    suggest 
the  inference  that  in  their  broader  features  both  may 
be  derived  from  some  common  source  :  but  here  the 
resemblance  ends.     In  other  respects  the  Babylonian 
scheme  is  entirely  polytheistic  :  chaos  is  anterior  to 
deity ;  and  as  the  earth  gradually  assumes  shape,  the 
gods  of  the  Assyrian   pantheon  emerge  at  the  same 
time  from  the  surging  deep.^      How  different  is  the 
representation  in  Genesis  !     The  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  Deity,  His  power  to   mould   and   dispose  all 
things   to   His   own    purpose,  the   perfect  realization 

^  The  Chaldaean  account  may  be  read  in  Schrader's  Onieiforni 
Inscriptioiis  and  the  Old  Testament  (1883),  on  Gen.  i.  i,  14,  20  ; 
or  in  Records  of  the  Past,  second  series,  i.  (1888)  p.  133  ii.  (in  a 
different  version,  p.   149  ff.). 

2  See  lines  7-12  of  the  first  tablet  (Schrader,  p.  2  ;  Records  of 
the  Past,  p.  133).  The  two  translations  differ  in  some  details, 
])ut  not  substantially.  That  of  Schrader  forms  the  basis  of  the 
extract  in  the  Exposito?',  Jan.  18S6,  p.  39. 


TIIK   FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS.  I /I 

of  His  design,  marking  the  entire  work,  and  noted  by 
the  recurring  formula,  "And  God  saw  that  it  was 
good,"  could  not  be  more  distinctly  or  more  em- 
phatically expressed.  It  is  the  record  of  the  unique 
relation  in  which  every  part  of  the  world  stands  to 
its  Maker,  a  relation  in  which  (as  the  usage  of  the 
word  rendered  create  appears  to  imply  i)  it  stands  to 
none  besides.  The/^r/  of  a  creator  is  the  fundamental 
teaching  of  the  cosmogony  of  Genesis  :  to  that  fact 
it  was  a  witness  in  the  ancient  world,  in  times  when 
it  was  ill-apprehended  or  obscured,  and  to  that  fact 
it  is  a  witness  still.  For  the  fact  is  one,  it  should  be 
recollected,  which  no  scientific  progress  can  affect  or 
disprove  :  science  may  instruct  us  indefinitely  in  the 
hidden  processes  of  Nature ;  theology  tells  us  what 
science,  as  such,  cannot  tell  us,  that  these  processes 
arc  not  ultimate,  that  they  are  arranged  and  ordered 
by  a  Divine  Mind.  Much  confusion  and  controversy 
would  be  avoided,  could  this  distinction  be  firmly  ap- 
prehended. Rightly  understood,  science  and  theology 
are  not  antagonistic,  but  siipplevientary.  Science 
discloses  merely  the  mechanical  and  physical  pro- 
cesses of  which  the  course  of  nature  consists  :  except 
when  it  passes  beyond  its  province,  it  affirms  nothing 
— but  it  also  denies  nothing— respecting  that  invisible 
Power  by  which,  as  we  believe,  they  have  been  con- 
certed and  regulated.  Here,  then,  is  one  characteristic 
feature  in  the  teaching  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
Secondly,  we  must  conclude,  the  chapter  is  not 
1  Sec  Note  C  (p.  178). 


J  72  SERiNION    VIII. 

meant  to  teach  authoritatively  the  actual  past  history 
of  the   earth.     It    is    not  a    revelation  of  what  may 
be  discoverable  by  natural  methods  ;    and  it  is  mis- 
taking- its  purport  altogether  either,  on  the  one  hand, 
to   hold    it    up    as    contradicting    modern    scientific 
discoveries,    or    on    the    other,    to    repeat   the   well- 
intentioned,  but  vain,  endeavour  to  reconcile  it  with 
them.     Its  object  is  to  afford  a  view  true  in  concep- 
tion, if  not  in  detail,  of  the  origin  of  the  earth  as  we 
know  it,  and  to  embody  this    not  in  an   abstract  or 
confused    form  which  may  soon    be  forgotten,  but  in 
a  series  of  representative  pictures  which  may  impress 
themselves  upon  the  imagination,  and  in  each  one  of 
wh'ch  the  truth  is  insisted  on,  that   the  stage  which 
it  represents    is    no    product    of  chance,  or    of   mere 
mechanical    forces,    but    that    it    is    an    act    of   the 
Divine    will.       It    teaches,    in    terms    which    all    can 
understand,  the  same  truth  which  is  the  outcome  of 
the  wisest    philosophy,  that    the  world    in  which  we 
live,  and  have  our  being,  cannot   be  comprehended, 
cannot  be  an  intelligible  object  of  knowledge,  except 
as  dependent  on  a  supreme  Mind.     With  this  view  it 
divides  artificially  the  periods  of  the  earth's  formation. 
It  groups  the  living  creatures  upon  its  surface  under 
the  great  subdivisions  which  appeal  to  the  eye,  and 
declares  each   to  have  been  produced   in  accordance 
with  the  Divine  Will,  each  to  owe  its  being  to  the 
Divine  intention.    It  states  the  fact  of  their  creation  : 
it  is  silent  on  the  secondary  causes  through  which,  in 
particular  cases,  or  even    more  generally,  they  may 


THE   FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS.  1/3 

have  been  developed.  Within  the  two  great  groups 
of  vegetable  and  animal  life  it  imposes  no  veto  on 
the  action  of  natural  causes  in  the  production  of 
species.  Their  production  by  the  persistent  accumu- 
lation of  minute  variations  may  or  may  not  be  true 
scientifically — upon  that  question  I  have  no  right  to 
pronounce  an  opinion — but,  in  so  far  as  it  is  true,  it 
involves  no  derogation  from  the  supremacy  of  the 
Creator,  no  denial  of  His  ever-present  operation  and 
providence.  The  doctrine  of  the  gradual  formation 
of  species  will  be  but  the  exhibition  in  detail  of  those 
processes  which  the  writer  of  this  chapter  of  Genesis 
sums  up  into  a  single  phrase,  and  apparently  com- 
presses into  a  single  moment,  for  the  purpose  of 
declaring  their  dependence  on  the  Divine  Will.  A 
third  point  on  which  the  record  insists  is  the  distinc- 
tive pre-eminence  belonging  to  man.  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness."  Let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves.  The  structural  similarity  between 
man  and  some  of  the  higher  animals  is  no  conclusive 
proof  that  he  does  not  possess  powers  differing  in 
kind,  and  not  in  degree  only,  from  theirs.  A  true 
estimate  of  human  nature  will  take  account  of  it  as 
a  whole  ;  it  will  not  view  it  from  its  lower  side  alone. 
What,  then,  do  we  suppose  to  be  meant  when  it  is  said 
that  man  was  made  in  the  "  image  of  God  "  ?  It  is 
meant  that  he  has  been  endowed  with  that  highest 
and  noblest  of  gifts,  the  gift  of  self-conscious  reason. 
In  all  that  is  implied  by  this  :  in  the  various  intel- 
lectual faculties  possessed  by  him  ;  in  that  creative  and 


1/4  SERMON   VIII. 

originative  power,  which  we  all  possess  in  greater  or 
less  degree,  but  which  is  the  pre-eminent  character- 
istic of  genius  ;  in  the  power  of  rising  superior  to  the 
impulses  of  sense,  of  subduing  and  transforming  them, 
and,  while  we  know  both,  of  choosing  the  good  and 
refusing  the  evil ;  in  the  ability  to  pass  beyond  our- 
selves, and  enter  into  new  relations  with  our  fellow- 
men,  relations  of  sympathy,  affection,  compassion, 
and  love  ;  in  that  capacity  for  a  character,  with  which 
our  happiness  is  so  strangely  linked  ;  in  the  power, 
lastly,  of  knowing  and  loving  God  partially  here,  as 
we  hope  to  know  and  love  Him  more  completely 
hereafter  —  is  not  man  in  all  these  respects  an 
adumbration,  however  faint,  a  reflex,  however  dimmed 
by  obscuring  shadows,  of  the  supreme  perfection 
of  the  Creator  ?  Are  not  these  the  features  in 
which  he  differs,  and  differs  essentially,  from  the 
beasts  that  perish  ?  Are  they  not  those  in  virtue  of 
which  God  can  make  Himself  known  to  him,  can 
reveal  to  him  His  purposes  of  grace,  and  grant  him 
the  promise  of  eternal  life  ? 

Such  are  some  of  the  chief  theological  doctrines 
implied  in  the  Cosmogony  of  Genesis.  It  teaches  the 
absolute  supremacy  of  the  Creator  in  His  work  of 
Creation  :  it  exhibits  to  us,  in  a  series  of  represeyitative 
pictures,  how  every  stage  of  His  work  was  dependent 
upon  His  will  and  realized  His  purpose  :  it  empha- 
sizes the  distinctive  pre-eminence  belonging  to  man. 
These  are  theological  truths,  not  truths  of  science.^ 
1  See  Note  D  (p.  178). 


THE   FIRST   CHAPTER   OF   GENESIS.  If 5 

It  is  imperative  that  the  Christian  teacher  should 
distinguish  what  can,  and  what  cannot,  be  claimed 
for  the  narrative  of  Genesis.  He  should  not  wait 
for  the  admission  to  be  extorted  from  him  by  an 
opponent :  he  should  be  beforehand  himself  with 
a  theory,  which,  recognizing  alike  the  claims  of 
theology  and  science,  will  be  just  to  each,  and 
render  each  its  due.  The  interpretation  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis  has  never  been  fixed  by  the  Church, 
and  forms  no  article  in  the  Christian  Creed.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  teacher,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
state  frankly  that  such  discrepancies  as  have  been 
alluded  to  exist,  and  on  the  other  to  point  out  that 
their  recognition  is  no  derogation  to*  the  Christian 
revelation,  and  in  no  respect  imperils  the  Christian 
faith.  There  are  many  minds  acute  enough  to  per- 
ceive the  truth  of  the  first  of  these  propositions,  but 
not  able  with  equal  clearness  to  discern  the  truth  of 
the  second.  The  unreality  of  the  reconciliations 
sometimes  proposed  by  commentators  is  detected  at 
once  by  those  who  are  at  the  pains  to  examine  the 
subject  for  themselves.  Above  all  things,  it  is  the 
duty  of  those  at  the  present  day  who  see  more  clearly 
to  express  themselves  in  terms  which  cannot  be 
misunderstood.! 

But  to  return  in  conclusion  for  a  few  moments  to 

the  words  with  which  I  began.      "  Where  wast  thou 

when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  world  ?"     Science 

studied  rightly,  promotes,  not  the  pride  of  intellect, 

1  See  Note  E  (p.  178). 


1/6  SERMON    VIII. 

but  humility.  Year  by  year,  as  fresh  conquests  are 
gained,  now  in  some  remote  corner  of  the  universe, 
now  in  the  structure  of  some  minute  organism  scarcely 
visible  to  the  eye,  we  acquire  new  and  unexpected 
insight  into  the  operations  of  Divine  Wisdom  ;  we 
are  impressed  more  and  more  with  the  magnitude 
and  profundity  of  the  design  which  is  stamped  upon 
the  physical  creation.  But  Job's  answer  to  the 
question  put  to  him  must  also  be  ours.  We  may 
follow  back  in  imagination,  to  their  earliest  beginnings, 
the  long  succession  of  living  forms  which  have  peopled 
our  earth,  we  may  infer  somewhat  respecting  the 
gigantic  movements  which  took  place  when  the  founda- 
tions of  this  world  were  being  laid  ;  but  when  we  have 
gone  thus  far,  a  vaster  unknown  than  Job  could  even 
imagine  looms  through  the  darkness  beyond.  In  what- 
ever direction  we  turn  our  eye,  it  can  descry  no  traces 
of  an  end  :  on  the  contrary,  it  discovers  more  and 
more  which  we  cannot  account  for  or  explain.  After 
twenty-five  centuries,  as  we  survey  the  physical 
universe,  we  must  confess  with  Job  himself,  in  another 
place  :  "  Lo,  these  are  but  the  outskirts  of  his  ways," 
and  *'  the  whisper  of  a  word  "  is  still  all  that  "  we  hear 
of  him."  1 

1  Job  XXV i.  14. 


ADDITIONAL   NOTES    TO    SERMON  VIII. 

Note  A. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  this  interpretation  of 
"  day  "  is  uncertain,  and  that  the  distinction  which  is  regularly 
made  between  "evening"  and  "morning''  is  opposed  to  it. 
There  is  force  also  in  Dr.  Ladd's  remarks :  "  It  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  six  entire  days  are  taken  for  creation 
because  God  needs  time  in  order  that  His  will  and  wisdom  may 
reach  their  result.  To  the  Hebrew  mind  the  majesty  of  Jehovah 
consists  in  His  having  His  will  done  without  any  intervening  time. 
Of  the  long  geological  periods,  and  slow,  involved  processes, 
and  patient,  everlasting  evolution  of  results  by  building  one 
stage  upon  the  preceding  stage,  which  modern  physical  science 
emphasizes,  the  Hebrew  mind  had  not  the  least  conception  as  a 
necessity  or  fact  of  creation.  It  is  divine  to  speak,  and  have 
the  word  at  once  accomplished  [Ps.  xxxiii.  9].  The  six  days  of 
creation  are  none  of  them  to  be  regarded  as  in  any  s^nstjilled  up 
with  the  Divine  work.  To  think  of  Jehovah  as  engaged  all  day 
in  getting  accomplished  the  task  appropriate  to  each  period 
would  doubtless  have  seemed  to  the  sacred  writer  degrading  to 
His  majesty"  {What  is  the  Bible?     New  York,  1890,  p.  137  f.). 

Note  B. 

For  the  grounds  of  the  statements  contained  in  this  para- 
graph, the  writer  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  an  article  on  "  The 
Cosmogony  of  Genesis,"  contributed  by  him  to  the  Expositor, 
Jan.  1886,  pp.  23-45,  where  also  some  account  is  given  of  the 
principal  schemes  of  reconciliation  which  have  been  proposed. 

N 


1/8  ADDITIONAL    NOTES   TO   SKRMON    VIII. 

On  the  violent  methods  of  interpretation  by  which  the  eminent 
geologist,  Prof.  Dana,  thinks  it  possible  to  harmonize  the  narra- 
tive of  Genesis  with  the  teachings  of  science,  see  the  Andover 
(U.  S.  A.)  Review,  Dec,  1887,  p.  641  ff.  It  surely  is  not  legiti- 
mate or  reasonable,  for  instance,  to  understand  "earth"  and 
"waters"  in  Gen.  i.  2  as  denoting  nothing  resembling  what 
these  words  ordinarily  signify  in  Hebrew,  but  matter  in  that 
unimaginable  condition  when  it  was  not  yet  endowed  with  force, 
and  the  power  of  molecular  action  ;  or  to  suppose  that  ''waters  " 
in  Gen.  i.  6  is  a  term  descriptive  of  the  attenuated  substance  of 
the  universe  while  yet  diffused,  in  a  nebulous  or  vaporous  form, 
through  space. 

Note  C. 

The  word  means  properly,  as  it  seems,  to  cut  or  shape  (in  the 
intensive  conjugation,  it  is  used  in  Josh.  xvii.  17  of  cutting 
down  trees  ;  and  in  Phoenician — see  the  Co?'pus  hiscriptioniun 
Semiticaruni,  Tom.  i.  No.  347 — it  denotes  the  employment  of 
some  kind  of  artificer)  ;  but  in  the  simple  conjugation  it  is  used 
in  the  Old  Testament  exclusively  of  God. 

Note  D. 

Human  nature,  as  a  whole,  becomes  the  subject-matter  of 
science,  only  in  so  far  as  the  functions  of  the  brain  are  treated  as 
exclusively  physiological.  This  treatment  of  them  will  not 
however  be  conceded  by  philosophy  to  include  the  whole  truth. 
Consciousness  is  co7tditio7ied — so  ftir  as  our  experience  enables 
us  to  judge — by  a  physical  organism,  but  cannot  be  resolved  into 
a  w^^i? function  of  it. 

Note  E. 

Very  just  views  on  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the  Biblical 
narrative  are  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Ladd's  volume,  quoted  in  Note 
A,  chap,  v.,  p.  126  ff. 


SERMON    IX.^ 

THE    WARRIOR   FROM  EDOM. 

Is.  Ixiii.  I  :  *'  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  Avith  dyed 
garments  from  Bozrah  ?  this  that  is  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
travelling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ?  " 

The  first  six  verses  of  the  portion  of  the  Book  of 
Isaiah  appointed  to  be  read  for  the  Epistle  in  this 
morning's  service,  constitute  a  whole,  distinguished 
aHke  in  subject  and  in  tone  from  the  part  which 
follows.  The  imaginative  power,  which  in  the  great 
prophecy  beginning  with  the  fortieth  chapter,  and 
extending  to  the  end  of  the  book,  so  often  kindles 
our  admiration,  has  produced  in  these  few  verses  one 
of  its  most  striking  creations.  Let  us  study  it 
to-night  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  its  import  and 
significance.  The  last  twenty-seven  chapters  of  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  were  designed  primarily  for  the  reassur- 
ance and  encouragement  of  the  Jewish  exiles,  who, 
after  the  city  and  temple  had  been  captured  by  the 
troops  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  were  removed  in  a  body  to 
Babylon.     That  this  is  the  situation  of  those  whom 

1  Preached  in  the  Cathedral,  on  the  evening  of  Monday  in 
Holy  Week,  1884. 


l8o  SERMON    IX. 

the  prophet  is  addressing,  is  apparent  from  many 
indications — amongst  others  from  the  words  occurring 
in  the  chapter  which  next  follows,  descriptive  of  that 
same  terrible  and  overwhelming  disaster,  to  the 
pathetic  description  of  which  we  have  been  listening 
in  the  First  Lesson  this  evening  : — *'  Thy  holy  cities 
are  become  a  wilderness  ;  Zion  is  become  a  wilder- 
ness, Jerusalem  a  desolation.  Our  holy  and  beautiful 
house,  where  our  fathers  praised  thee,  is  burned  with 
fire ;  and  all  our  pleasant  things  are  laid  waste."  ^ 
The  captivity  in  Babylon  lasted  for  long  :  Jeremiah 
had  warned  the  exiles  that  they  must  look  for  no 
speedy  return  ;  he  had  bidden  them  build  houses  and 
plant  vineyards  in  their  foreign  home  ;  -  for,  from  the 
date  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  first  conquests,  seventy 
years,  he  declared,  would  elapse  before  the  banished 
people  were  restored.^  The  exiles,  it  would  seem, 
obeyed  Jeremiah's  directions  :  the  life,  at  first  so 
strange,  grew  familiar  to  them,  so  that  among  their 
children,  in  the  next  generation,  there  were  many 
content  with  the  conditions  in  which  they  found 
themselves,  and  in  no  way  eager  for  a  change.  Thus, 
when  the  promised  limit  drew  nigh,  and  the  deliverer, 
Cyrus,  appeared  in  the  distance,  there  were  some  who 
viewed  the  prospect  of  a  return  to  their  ancient 
country  with  unconcern  ;  while  others,  whose  temper 

^  Is.  Ixiv.  lo-ii.     Cf.  Lam.  ii.  13-22. 

2  Jer.  xxviii.,  xxix.  4-10. 

3  Jer.  XXV.  II  f  (belonging  to  the  year  in  which  Nebuchad- 
nezzar defeated  the  troops  of  Pharaoh  Necho  at  Carchemish, 
B.C.  604). 


THE    WARRIOR   FROM    EDOM.  iSl 

was  different,  were   despondent   or    incredulous,  not 

believing   that   the   promised    deliverance  would    be 

effected.^     On   the   return    of  the    nation    to   Judaea 

great  issues,  indeed,  were  staked  :   but  the  mass  of 

the  people  did  not,  perhaps  could  not,  realize  what 

they  were  ;  and  the  Babylonian  monarchy  seemed  to 

be  so  firmly  established,  that  it  was  deemed  doubtful 

if  any  power  could  break  its  strength.     To  overcome 

such  indifference  and  want  of  faith  is  the  main  scope 

of  this  group  of  chapters ;  and  the  prophet  elaborates 

his   theme  with   unrivalled   dramatic    and    rhetorical 

force.     Again  and  again,  each  time  under  a  new  and 

telling  figure,  he  assures  his  people  that  their  God, 

who  presides  over  nature,  and  directs  the  movements 

of  history,  will  so  shape  its  course  now,  that  Israel's 

release   will    be    effected,    and    the   nation    be    thus 

enabled  to  complete  its  future  destiny.     Its  enemies 

will  be  powerless,  their  efforts  foiled  :  "  no  weapon," 

he   exclaims,    "that    is    formed   against    thee    shall 

prosper."  ^ 

This  now  is  the  thought  which,  with  singular 
grandeur  of  conception,  is  set  before  us  in  the  short 
section  which  I  ask  you  to  consider  with  me  to-night. 
Let  me  first  explain  briefly  the  details. 

Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom, 
With  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ? 
This  that  is  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
Marching  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ? 


1  Comp.  Is.  xl.  27,  xlvi.  12  (the  "stout-hearted,"  who  reUise 
to  credit  the  prophet's  announcement),  xlix.  14. 
^  xh.  15  f.,  xHx.  25  f.,  1.  22  f.,  Hv.  17,  &c. 


1 82  SERMON    IX. 

The  prophet  sees  a  figure,  as  of  a  Conqueror,  with 
crimsoned  garments,  advancing,  proudly  and  ma- 
jestically, from  the  direction  of  Edom.  The  Edomites 
were  olJ  and  embittered  enemies  of  Israel ;  and  the 
writings  of  the  prophets  contain  many  allusions  to  the 
rivalry  and  unfriendly  feeling  subsisting  between  the 
two  nations.^  In  particular,  we  learn  from  Ezekiel 
that  they  had  evinced  special  delight  on  the  occasion 
when  Jerusalem  was  captured  by  the  Chald.neans, 
which  seemed  to  them  a  proof  that  the  Chosen  People 
were  no  better  than  the  heathen.^  The  appearance 
of  the  Conqueror  from  Edom,  then,  implies  that  one 
of  Israel's  most  inveterate  foes  has  been  humiliated. 
The  prophet,  affecting  ignorance,  inquires  who  he  is  : 
he  hears  in  reply  the  words — 

I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save, 

or,  as  we  might  paraphrase,  I  who  have  announced  a 
just  and  righteous  purpose  of  deliverance,^  and  am 
able  to  give  it  effect.  The  answer  does  not  satisfy 
the   inquirer :    it   does    not   explain    the    crimsoned 

1  Amos  i.  II,  Jer.  xlix.  12,  Ob.  10-16,  Lam.  iv.  21  f.,  Ezek.  xxxv. 
5  (a  "perpetual  enmity").  Is.  xxxiv.,  Joel  iii.  19,  Mai.  i.  2-4. 

2  Ezek.  xxxv.  5  ("  Because  thou  hast  had  a  perpetual  enmity, 
and  hast  given  over  the  children  of  Israel  to  the  power  of  the 
sword  in  the  day  of  their  calamity"),  10  ("Because  thou  hast 
said,  These  two  nations  and  these  two  countries  shall  be  mine, 
and  we  will  possess  it"),  12  ("  I  the  Lord  have  heard  all  thy 
blasphemies  which  thou  hast  spoken  against  the  mountains  of 
Israel,  saying,  They  are  laid  desolate,  they  are  given  u^  to 
devour").  Comp.  Ezek.  xxv.  12,  Ps.  cxxxvii.  7,  and  Is.  xxxiv.  8 
(the  "  quarrel  of  Zion,"  viz.  with  Edom). 

^  Comp.  for  tlic  expression  xlv.  19. 


THE  WARRIOR  FROM  EDOM.        1 83 

garments  which    first    attracted    his    attention.     The 

prophet,  therefore,  asks  again  more  directly — 

Wherefore  art  thou  red  in  thine  apparel, 

And  thy  garments  like  him  that  treadeth  the  wine-press  ? 

The  answer  follows — 

The  wine-press  I  have  trodden  alone  ; 
And  of  the  peoples,  no  man  was  with  me  : 

among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  no  one  assisted 

Him— 

And  I  have  trodden  them  in  mine  anger,  and  trampled 

them  in  my  fury  ; 
And  their  hfe-stream  is  sprinkled  upon  my  garments, 
And  I  have  stained  all  my  raiment. 

Not  Edom  only,  but  the  other  nations  as  well,  hostile 

to  God  and  to  His  people,  have  been  trodden  down 

and  subdued — 

For  the  day  of  vengeance  was  in  my  heart  ; 
And  the  year  of  my  redeemed  was  come  : 

the  time  had  arrived  for  My  people  to  be  delivered, 
and  My  purpose  was  one  of  vengeance  on  their  foes. 

And  I  looked,  but  there  was  none  to  help. 
And  I  M^as  amazed  that  there  was  none  to  uphold  : 
Therefore  mine  own  arm  brought  salvation  to  me  ; 
And  my  fury,  it  upheld  me. 

No  one,  the    meaning   is,  willingly  and    consciously 

offered  to  help  forward  the  work  :  nevertheless,  God's 

purpose  accomplished  itself,  human  means,  in  so  far 

as  they  were    used  by  Him,  being  His  instruments 

unconsciously. 

And  I  trod  down  the  peoples  in  mine  anger, 

And  brake  them  in  pieces  in  my  fury. 

And  I  brought  down  their  life-stream  to  the  earth. 


1 84  SERMON    IX. 

At  this  point  the  subject  chan^^es  ;  and  in  the  rest 
of  the  chapter,  as  in  chapter  Ixiv.,  the  prophet  no 
longer  questions  Jehovah  in  dialogue,  he  addresses 
Jehovah  as  a  suppHant,  speaking  in  his  people's  name, 
and  entreating  Him  for  a  renewal  of  the  mercies 
shown  to  Israel  in  the  past. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  expressions  used  in  this 
passage  are  not  to  be  interpreted  literally.  They  do 
not  describe  any  event  in  history,  as  it  actually 
occurred.  The  prophets  seize  the  great  principles  of 
God's  government  of  the  world,  and  set  them  forth  in 
a  sym.bolical,  or  imaginative,  dress  ;  and  we  must 
penetrate  through  this  symbolism  of  form,  if  we  wish 
to  discover  the  fundamental  truth,  or  truths,  to 
which  it  gives  expression.^  Here  it  is  plain  that  the 
fundamental  thought  is  the  impotence  of  the  nations 
to  arrest  God's  purposes  at  a  critical  moment  in  the 
history  of  His  people.  That  is  the  truth  which  was  of 
immediate,  practical  interest  to  the  prophet.  It  is  the 
truth  which,  as  I  have  remarked  before,  it  is  his  aim 
effectually  to  bring  home  to  his  readers,  and  by  which 
he  seeks  to  encourage  and  re-assure  them  in  face  of 
the  obstacles  which  at  least  many  amongst  them 
imagined  to  beset  their  nation's  future.  And  it  is 
manifest  how  much  more  impressive  the  prophet's 
representation  is,  how  much  better  adapted  to  secure 
the  end  desired,  than  an  abstract  verbal  enunciation 
would  have  been.  It  is  one  of  those  applications  of 
figurative  language,  the  product  of  the  imaginative 
^  Cf.  above,  p.  io8. 


THE   WxVRRIOR  FROM    EDOM.  1 85 

faculty,  which  the  higher  style  of  human  composition 
is  always  ready  to  employ,  which  appealed  with 
peculiar  force  to  an  Eastern  people,  and  which  recur, 
under  one  form  or  another,  in  many  different  parts  of 
the  Bible. 

In  what  connexion,  however,  does  the  passage 
stand  with  the  events  which  we  commemorate  at 
this  sacred  season  ?  It  is  not  possible  to  understand 
it  as  referring  directly  to  the  passion  or  triumph  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  :  in  the  prophecy,  the  conqueror 
is  bestained  not  with  his  own  blood,  but  with  that  of 
his  victims,  and  his  enemies  are  not  spiritual  foes, 
but  the  nations  of  the  world.  The  language  is  too 
express  to  leave  any  doubt  on  this  point.  But  though 
not  a  direct  prediction  of  the  Agony  of  Christ,  it 
may  be  brought  very  naturally  into  connexion  with 
it.  We  may  regard  it  as  a  type,  or  emblematic 
representation,  of  that  triumph  of  God  over  the 
enemies  opposed  to  Him,  which  is  re-enacted  again 
and  again  in  the  course  of  history,  but  which  in  its 
completest  form,  and  with  far-reaching  results,  was 
accomplished  in  the  Passion  and  Death  of  our 
Blessed  Lord.  In  itself,  it  was  designed  as  an  en- 
couragement to  the  Jewish  exiles  in  Babylon,  showing 
them,  by  a  signal  example,  how  the  most  determined 
opposition  to  the  welfare  of  God's  people  would  be 
overcome ;  but  this  opposition,  as  we  know  both 
from  history  and  from  individual  experience,  has  not 
been  confined  to  one  occasion  only;  it  is  repeated  in 
history,  under  many  different  circumstances,  and   in 


1 86  SERMON    IX. 

many  different  forms.  And  the  greatest  triumph 
achieved  over  it,  was  the  triumph  gained  by  Christ. 
Our  Church,  then,  to-day  directs  our  thoughts  to  the 
grand  conception  drawn  by  the  prophet's  inspired 
imagination  :  and  though  every  detail  does  not 
correspond  with  exactness,  bids  us  see  in  it  a  type,  or 
figure,  of  that  greater  conflict,  in  which  the  enemies 
overcome  were  not  the  nations  of  the  earth,  but  the 
powers  of  darkness,  and  of  which  the  issue  was  not 
the  temporal  restoration  of  the  Chosen  People,  but 
the  restitution  from  spiritual  bondage  of  fallen 
humanity.  The  truth  that  man's  opposition  cannot 
thwart  God's  saving  purposes,  that  He  will,  if  need 
be,  carry  them  through  unaided,  is  signally  and 
wonderfully  exemplified  in  the  closing  events  of  our 
Lord's  life  upon  earth.  The  Warrior  in  the  prophecy 
is  a  Divine  One,  just  as  the  Victor  in  the  New 
Testament  is  the  God-man.  Certainly  to  the  outward 
eye,  His  course  during  that  last  week  seemed  to  be 
one  of  humiliation  and  reverse,  the  blood  with  which 
His  garments  were  stained  was  His  own  life-blood, 
and  death,  not  victory,  seemed  to  be  the  close.  But 
in  the  spiritual  conflict,  the  Passion  was  itself  a 
triumph  ;  and  the  blood  was  the  symbol  not  of 
defeat,  but  of  victory.  The  Passion  and  Death  of 
Christ  brought  to  nought  him  that  had  the  power  of 
death,  and  inaugurated  the  "year  of"  Jehovah's 
"  redeemed."  And  this  is  the  point  of  view  from  which 
the  Cross  is  alluded  to  by  the  Apostle.  In  his  Epistle 
to  the  Colossians,  St.  Paul  says  that  Christ,  "  having 


THE    WARRIOR   FROM   EDOM.  1 8/ 

stripped  off  from  himself  the  principalities  and  the 
powers,"/.^,  having  released  Himself  from  the  evil 
assailants  which  clung  round  Him  and  strove  to 
bring  Him  down,  "made  a  show  of  them  openly, 
triumphing  over  them  upon  it."  ^  The  Cross,  that  is, 
is  regarded  ideally  by  the  Apostle  as  the  scene  of  a 
triumph,  the  triumph  of  Christ,  the  Head  and  repre- 
sentative of  humanity,  over  the  power  of  sin  and  evil. 
There  is,  however,  in  the  New  Testament  an 
allusion  to  the  prophecy  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, which  deserves  to  be  noticed  in  the  present 
connexion.  The  seer  of  the  Apocalypse,  in  one  of  his 
later  visions,  sees  one  having  the  name  of  the  Word  of 
God,  clad,  like  the  warrior  of  the  prophet,  with  a 
vesture  sprinkled  in  blood,  who  smites  the  nations 
with  a  sharp  sword,  and  treads  the  winepress  of  the 
fierce  wrath  of  Almighty  God.^  Dark  and  mysterious 
as  the  Apocalypse  must  always  largely  remain,  it 
seemiS  at  least  to  be  clear  that  what  is  contemplated 
in  this  vision  is  the  final  consummation  of  that  which 
is  at  present  only  inchoate,  the  subjugation  of  sin 
and  evil,  when  Christ  shall  have  put  all  things  under 
His  feet,  and  judgment  shall  have  been  finally 
executed  upon  His  enemies.  The  Divine  warrior, 
as  before,  accomplishes  His  work  alone:  and  He 
treads  the  wine-press,  as  the  agent  of  God's  wrath, 
against  the  representatives  of  sin  and  evil.  It  is  the 
completion,  as  a  fact,  of  the  work  already  completed 
potentially  upon  Golgotha. 

^  Col.  ii.  15.  -  Rev.  xi\'.  13-16. 


1 88  SERMON    IX. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  passage  with  which  we 
started.  A  comment  on  the  spirit  in  which  we  should 
read  it  is  afforded  by  the  passage  which  immedi- 
ately follows.!  There  the  prophet  addresses  Jehovah 
in  his  people's  name  ;  and  in  the  assured  conviction 
that  the  redemption,  guaranteed  by  His  triumph, 
will  be  accomplished,  supplies  faithful  Israel  with  a 
hymn  of  thanksgiving,  supplication,  and  confession, 
expressive  of  the  frame  of  mind  worthy  to  receive 
it.  In  words  of  surpassing  eloquence  and  beauty, 
he  celebrates  the  lovingkindnesses  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  great  goodness  bestowed  by  Him  upon  the  house 
of  Israel,  recalling  how  in  His  love  and  in  His  pity 
He  redeemed  them  in  the  days  of  old  from  Egypt, 
and  how  afterwards  they  had  rebelled  and  vexed  His 
Holy  Spirit,  until  He  was  turned  to  be  their  enemy, 
and  fought  against  them.  Then  follows  the  appeal, 
heard  in  this  section  for  the  first  and  only  time  in  the 
Old  Testament,  to  the  Fatherhood  of  God, — "  Doubt- 
less thou  art  our  Father,  though  Abraham  be  ignorant 
of  us,  and  Israel  acknowledge  us  not  ;  thou,  O  LORD, 
art  our  father  ;  our  redeemer  from  of  old  is  thy  name. 
O  Lord,  why  dost  thou  cause  us  to  err  from  thy 
ways,  and  hardenest  our  heart  from  thy  fear  ^  Return 
for  thy  servants'  sake,  the  tribes  of  thy  inheritance." 
The  pure  and  intense  emotion  with  which  the  prophet 
contemplates  the  benefits  conferred  upon  his  people, 
the  confession  of  their  own  unworthiness,  his  faith  in 
God's  fatherly  care  for  His  people,  and  the  assurance 
^  Is.  Ixiii.  7 — Ixiv.  12. 


THE   WARRIOR   FROM    EDOM.  1 89 

with  which  he  looks  forward  to  the  promised 
restoration,  are  models  of  the  attitude  of  mind  which 
we  also  may  make  our  own,  and  in  which  we  may  in 
particular  meditate  on  the  deliverance  effected  for  us 
by  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  Benefits  and  mercies 
greater  than  those  of  which  Israel  partook  have  been 
bestowed  upon  us :  let  us  bear  in  thankful  re- 
membrance the  sufferings  and  the  triumph,  not  our 
own,  which  secured  them  for  us.  Let  us  fix  our  eyes 
in  devout  contemplation  on  the  events  which  day  by 
day  at  this  season  are  set  before  us  ;  and  endeavour, 
by  God's  help,  in  the  spirit  which  the  prophet  has 
taught  us,  to  receive  and  to  use  worthily  the  bless- 
ings derived  therefrom,  of  which  we  have  been  made 
the  inheritors. 


SERMON    X.^ 

THE  SIXTY-EIGHTH  PSALM. 

Ps.  Ixviii.  i8  :  "  Thou  hast  ascended  on  high,  thou  hast  led  (thy) 
captivity  captive  ;  thou  hast  received  gifts  among  men,  yea, 
among  the  rebellious  also,  that  the  Lord  God  might  dwell 
(there)." 

These  words  form  part  of  the  Psalm,  the  sixty-eighth, 
which  we  have  heard  in  this  morning's  service. 
The  period  of  history  to  which  the  Psalm  belongs  is 
uncertain  ;  some  parts  wear  the  appearance  of  being 
ancient,  others  present  features  which  point  with 
some  cogency  towards  a  later  date.  The  Old  Tes- 
tament affords  many  examples  of  a  writer  incor- 
porating, and  adapting  to  his  own  use,  phrases,  and 
even  entire  verses,  originally  written,  on  an  altogether 
different  occasion,  by  another  hand  ;  ^  and  it  is  possible 
that  this  is  the  solution  of  the  pha^nomena  which  the 
Psalm    presents.     Certainly,  two  verses    are    quoted, 

1  Preached  in  the  Cathedral  on  Sunday,  Nov.  13,  1887. 

^  Comp.  for  example,  Is.  ii.  2-4  with  Mic.  iv.  1-3  ;  Jer.  xlviii. 
with  Is.  xv.-xvi.  (see  the  margin  of  the  former,  in  the  Revised 
Version);  Jer.  xlix.  9-10,  14-16  with  Obad.  56,  1-4;  Is.  xxiv. 
17-18  with  Jer.  xlviii.  43-44  ;  Ps.  xcvi.  7,  8%  9*  with  Ps.  xxix. 
1-2  ;  Ps,  xcviii.  1%  3**  with  Is.  xlii.  10,  iii.  10,  &;c.  (In  some 
of  the  instances  the  phraseology  is  slightly  varied.) 


THE    SIXTY-EIGHTH    PSALM.  I9I 

nearly  word  for  word,  from  the  Song  of  Deborah,  in 
the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Judges  ^ ;  and  this 
being  so,  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  other  verses 
may  be  quoted  from  some  earlier  sources  extant  at 
the  time  when  the  Psalm  was  composed,  but  now 
lost.  When  we  read  in  the  fourth  verse — not,  "  Mag- 
nify him  that  rideth  upon  the  heavens  as  it  were 
upon  an  horse,"  but,  as  we  ought  to  read,  and  as 
in  the  Revised  Version  we  do  read,  "  Cast  up  a  high- 
way for  him  that  rideth  through  the  deserts,"  we  are 
reminded  involuntarily  of  the  words  in  which  the 
prophet  bids  a  path  be  made  ready  in  the  wilderness, 
for  the  people  soon  to  be  restored  from  its  exile  in 
Babylon — "  In  the  wilderness  prepare  ye  the  way  of 
the  Lord  ;  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway 
for  our  God."  ^  This  verse  is  the  only  parallel  to  the 
one  in  the  Psalm  which  the  Old  Testament  affords  : 
and  the  similarity  is  so  striking  that  we  can  hardly 
be  wrong,  especially  when  we  find  it  confirmed  by 
other  indications,  in  being  guided  by  it  in  fixing  a 
date  for  the  Psalm.  The  Psalm  will  in  any  case  not 
be  earlier  than  the  closing  years  of  the  Babylonian 
captivity  ;  and  it  is  a  reasonable  conjecture  that  it 
was  written  in  view  of  the  approaching  return  of  the 
exiled  nation  to  Palestine,  and  of  God's  re-entry 
into  His  ancient  sanctuary  on  Zion.  The  Psalmist 
views  the  coming  deliverance  as  a  great  manifestation 

^  Ps.  Ixviii.  7-8  ;  romp.  Jud.  v.  4-5. 

^  Is.  xl.  3  :  comp.  Ivii.  14,  Ixii.  10,  where  the  same  expression 
cast  tip  a  way — viz.  for  the  returning  nation — is  used. 


192  SERMON    X. 

of  Jehovah's  power,  and  a  triumph  over  Israel's  foes  : 
and  so  he  opens  in  tones  of  hope  and  exultation, 
almost  quoting  the  words  of  the  old  war-cry,  which 
was  used  when  the  Ark  was  moved — ^ 

Let  God  arise,  let  his  enemies  be  scattered, 
And  let  them  that  hate  him  flee  before  him. 

Throughout  the  Psalm  is  pitched  in  the  same  tri- 
umphant key  :  it  is  the  most  buoyant,  the  most  ani- 
mated, the  most  powerful  which  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Psalter.  At  least,  the  only  Psalm  which  could  contest 
with  it  this  description  would  be  that  other  not  less 
noble  one,  the  eighteenth.  His  jubilant  exordium 
ended,  the  Psalmist  turns  to  reviev/  the  former 
history  of  his  nation.  The  prospect  of  the  immediate 
return  to  Palestine  kindles  his  imagination,  and  ani- 
mates his  pen  :  under  vivid  and  impressive  figures  he 
describes  the  journey  of  Israel  through  the  wilderness, 
and  its  triumphant  occupation  of  the  land  of  Canaan, 
culminating  in  the  choice  of  Zion  as  the  abode  of 
God,  and  His  solemn  entry  into  it  ;  for  he  sees  in 
these  glories  of  the  past  a  type,  or  pledge,  of  the 
people's  speedy  deliverance  now,  and  of  their  restor- 
ation to  their  ancient  home.     In   this  review  of  the 

*  Nmn,  X.  35.  The  change  of  ''  Jehovah  "  to  "  God  "  is  due,  in 
all  probability,  not  to  the  author  of  the  Psalm,  but  to  the 
collector  \yho  compiled  Book  11.  of  the  Psalms  (Ps.  xlii.-lxxii.), 
and  Avho,  like  the  compiler  of  Ps.  Ixxiii.-lxxxiii.,  sought  to  avoid, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  use  of  the  former  term,  replacing  it  usually 
by  the  latter  (comp.  especially  Ps.  liii.  with  Ps.  xiv.,  and  Ps. 
Ixx.  with  Ps.  xl.  13-17).  See  Prof.  Kirkpatrick's  The  Psaluis 
{Book  /.),  pp.  xli,  xlii  ;  or  the  wxxitts  Introduction^  pp.  349-351. 


THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH   PSALM.  I93 

past,  the  Song  of  Deborah  is  the  chie  to  the 
Psalmist's  thought.  Quoting  from  it,  almost  verbally, 
he  first  notices  the  departure  from  Sinai — • 

O  God,  when  thou  wentest  forth  before  thy  people, 
When  thou  niarchedst  through  the  wilderness, 
The  earth  trembled,  the  heavens  also  dropped  before  God, 
Yon  Sinai  trembled  at  the  presence  of  God,  the  God  of 
Israel.^ 

Passing  on,  he  recalls  the  memory  of  the  gifts  and 
benefits  with  which  God  visited  His  people  in  the 
wilderness — ■ 

A  bounteous  rain,  O  God,  thou  didst  shower  down  : 
When  thine  inheriiance  was  weary,  thou  diust  confirm  it. 

Next  he  glances  at  the  successes  won  by  Israel, 
during  its  early  occupation  of  Palestine  :  no  sooner 
was  the  signal,  or  command,  uttered.,  than  victory 
followed  immediately,  and  the  maidens  ^  of  Israel 
flocked  forth  to  greet  the  victor  and  proclaim  the 
news — 

The  Lord  gave  the  word  : 

The  woaien  that  brought  the  tidings  were  a  great  host. 

He  quotes  fragments  from  an  ancient  battle-song, 
sung  by  the  women  on  such  an  occasion — 

Kings  of  armies  do  flee,  do  flee  : 

And  she  that  tarrieth  at  home  dividcth  the  spoil. 

He  passes  to  narrate  the  choice  of  Zion,  after  David's 
conquest  of  it  from  the  Jebusites,  as  the  abode  of 
God,  and  His  solemn  entry  into  it.     Here,  first  of  all, 

1  Comp.  Jud.  V.  4-5. 

2  Comp.  I  Sam.  xviii.  7  ;  2  Sam.  i.  20  (daughters). 

O 


194  SERMON   X. 

he  poetically  imagines  other  mountains,  especially 
the  huge  and  massive  range  of  Bashan,  on  the  east  of 
Jordan,  as  viewing  with  ill-disguised  envy  the  honour 
bestowed  upon  the  comparatively  insignificant  hill 
of  Zion,  and  claiming  to  be  not  less  worthy  of  it 
themselves — 

A  mountain  of  God^  is  the  mountain  of  Bashan  ; 
A  mountain  of  many  heights  is  the  mountain  of  Bashan. 
Why  look  ye  askance,  ye  mountains  of  many  heights. 
At  the  mountain  which  God  hath  desired  for  his  abode  ? 
Yea,  Jehovah  will  dwell  in  it  for  ever. 

Next,  he  describes,  under  figures  borrowed  from 
the  triumph  of  an  earthly  conqueror,  God's  entry 
into  the  abode  thus  chosen  for  Himself:  at  the  head 
of  armies  of  angels  He  enters  the  sanctuary  on  Zion — 

The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty  thousand,  even  thousands 

redoubled  : 
The  Lord  is  come  from  ^  Sinai  into  the  sanctuary. 
Thou  hast  ascended  on  high, 
Thou  hast  led  (thy)  captivity  captive  ; 
Thou  hast  received  gifts  among  men. 
Yea,  among  the  refractory  also,  that  Jah  God  might  dwell 

(there). 

The  Psalmist  pictures  to  himself  a  triumphal  pro- 
cession, winding  up  the  newly-conquered  hill  of  Zion, 
the  figure  being  that  of  a  victor,  taking  possession  of 

1  /.  ^.  a  mountain  Avorthy  of  God,  a  noble  mountain. 

2  The  Hebrew  text  has  "■  is  among  them,"  which  in  connexion 
with  what  follows  yields  such  an  imperfect  sense  that  it  is 
necessary  to  suppose  an  error  in  the  reading.  The  correction 
here  adopted  only  involves  the  addition  of  a  single  letter 
{*^y^D72  M3  for  "^^''D  HI}),  and  has  been  approved  by  Nowack, 
Clicyne,  and  others.     Similarly  also  Bishop  Perowne. 


THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH   PSALM.  1 95 

the  enemy's  citadel,  and  with  his  train  of  captives 
and  spoil  following  him  in  the  triumph.  One  of  the 
phrases,  here  used,  is  sometimes  misunderstood.  The 
expression  "  led  captivity  captive "  is  sometimes 
taken  to  mean,  "  led  captive  and  subdued  the  power 
which  enthralled  others,"  the  word  "  captivity"  being 
almost  personified.  But  in  fact,  captivity  is  simply 
an  abstract  term  denoting  captives^  as  is  at  once 
shown  by  the  passage  from  the  Song  of  Deborah, 
from  which  the  expression  here  used  is  evidently 
borrowed  ^ — "  Arise,  Barak,  and  lead  thy  captivity 
captive,  thou  son  of  Abinoam."  Thus  the  phrase  just 
means,  '*  Hast  led  in  triumph  the  captives  which  thou 
hast  taken."  In  the  words  following,  "  Hast  received 
gifts  among  men^^  the  Psalmist  alludes  to  the  tribute 
offered  either  by  the  vanquished  foes  themselves,  or  by 
others  who  come  forward  spontaneously  to  own  the 
victor,  and  secure  his  favour.  And,  he  adds,  even 
those  who  have  held  out  most  obstinately,  even  the 
stubborn  or  refractory  ones,  are  now  ready  to  offer 
homage,  that  "  Jah  God  may  dwell  (there),"  in  the 
home  which  He  has  chosen,  with  none  to  dispute 
His  possession  of  it.  Here  the  climax  of  the  Psalm 
is  reached.  David's  occupation  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
entry  of  God  into  the  Tent  prepared  for  Him  there,- 
are  the  pledge  and  symbol  of  the  coming  re-occupation 
of  the  Holy  City,  and  the  re-entry  of  God  into  the 
Temple  soon  to  be  restored.     Hence  in  the  rest  of 

1  Jud.  V.  12. 

^  2  Sam.  vi.  17  ;  cf  vii.  2. 


196  SERMON    X. 

the  Psalm,  the  Psalmist  leaves  the  past,  and  contem- 
plates exclusively  the  present  or  the  future.  He  calls 
upon  Israel  to  praise  God  as  their  Benefactor  and 
Deliverer,  and  as  the  God  who  has  promised  them 
vengeance  upon  their  enemies.^  Next  he  draws  an 
ideal  picture  of  the  festal  processions  with  which, 
before  long,  the  Temple  will  be  re-dedicated, — ■ 
Zebulun  and  Naphtali,  the  two  tribes  which  Deborah 
had  singled  out  for  special  honour  in  her  Song,  being 
named  as  representing  the  ten  tribes,  whom  he  views, 
like  the  prophets,^  as  sharing  ideally  in  the  restor- 
ation. Lastly,  also  in  agreement  with  the  prophets, 
he  anticipates  the  day  when,  Jehovah  having  shown 
Himself  "strong"  for  Israel,  and  "scattered  the 
peoples  who  delight  in  war,"  the  nations  of  the 
earth  will  acknowledge  Israel's  religion,  and  render 
homage  to  the  God  whose  throne  is  on  Zion — 

Command  ^  thy  strength,  O  God  ; 

Show  thyself  strong,  O  God,   thou  who  hast  wrought  for 

us  *  out  of  thy  temple. 
Unto  Jerusalem  shall  kings  bring  presents  unto  thee. 

-He  mentions,  in  particular,  as  Isaiah  had  done  before 

^  Vv.  19-23. 

2  E.g.  Hos.  iii.  5,  Jer.  iii.  18,  xxvi.  4-6, 18-20,  Ezek.  xxxvii.  15  ff., 
xlviii.  I  ff.     See  a  different  explanation  in  Cheyne's  note  ad  loc. 

^  So,  with  a  change  of  punctuation,  many  ancient  versions 
and  modern  commentators.  "J7I3'^n^  in  v.  29  (Heb.  30)  is  difficult. 
The  rendering  "  Because  of  thy  temple  "  being  not  very  natural, 
it  is  easiest,  perhaps,  to  connect  the  word  with  the  preceding 
verse  (so  R.  V.  viar(^.)  :  for  the  idea,  cf.  xiv.  7%  xx.  3,  cxxviii. 
5.     With  "to  work  for,"  comp.  Is.  Ixiv.  4  (Heb.  3). 

"*  Viz.  in  the  past :  the  perfect  tense  as  Ps.  xxxi.  19,  xl.  5,  &c. 


THE   SIXTY-EIGIITII    PSALM.  1 9/ 

him,^  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  as  examples  of  powerful 
and  wealthy  nations,  hastening  forward  with  tokens 
of  allei^iance — 

Princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt, 

Ethiopia  shall  hasten  to  stretch  forth  her  hands  unto  God. 

And  he  closes  with  a  summons,  addressed  not  to 
Israel  only,  but  to  "  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,"  to 
honour  duly  God,  who  is  throned  on  high  in  the 
heavens,  but  who  manifests  Himself  also  with  power 
upon  earth  as  the  Protector  and  Redeemer  of  His 
people — 

Ascribe  ye  strength  unto  God  : 

Whose  majesty  is  over  Israel,  and  his  strength  is  in  the 
skies. 

0  God,  thou  art  terrible  out  of  thy  holy  places  : 

The  God  of  Israel,  he  giveth  strength  and  power  unto  the 

people. 
Blessed  be  God. 

The  verse  which  I  have  taken  for  my  text  is  quoted 
by  St.  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  in  a 
somewhat  different  form.  Speaking  of  the  various 
gifts  conferred  upon  members  of  the  Church,  he 
writes,'-  "But  unto  each  one  of  us  was  the  grace 
given  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ. 
Wherefore  he  saith.  When  he  ascended  on  higii,  he 
led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men."  St. 
Paul  is  not  here  following  the  genuine  text  of  the 
Psalm,  but  is  in  all  probability  guided  by  an  old 
Jewish  interpretation  with  which  he  was  familiar,  and 

1  Is.  xviii.  7,  xix.  iS-25.  ^  Eph.  iv.  7-8. 


198  SERMON    X. 

which  instead  of  "  received  gifts  among  men,"  para- 
phrased "  gave  gifts  to  men."  ^  It  must  not  be 
supposed  that  St.  Paul  quotes  the  text  in  proof  oi  the 
Ascension  of  our  Lord — which  it  would  clearly  be  in- 
adequate and  unsuitable  to  establish  :  but,  speaking  of 
the  gifts  bestowed  by  Christ  upon  the  Church,  he  recalls 
a  passage  which,  in  the  form  in  which  he  was  familiar 
with  it,  described  a  bestowal  of  gifts  on  man  ;  and 
he  cites  it  as  an  illustration  of  what  he  is  saying. 
St.  Paul  quotes  the  Old  Testament  in  the  manner 
common  to  his  age,  and  not  always  with  that  exact 
regard  to  the  original  sense  of  the  passage  quoted, 
which  we  should  expect  him  to  show :  he  follows, 
where  it  suits  his  purpose,  an  interpretation  current 
among  the  Jews,  without  stopping  to  inquire  whether 
it  was  consonant  with  the  sense  strictly  attaching  to 
the  passage  in  its  original  connexion.  That  he  does 
not  appeal  to  the  text  here  as  a  proof  passage,  ap- 
pears further  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  indication 
that  the  Psalm  was  treated  as  a  Messianic  one,  or 
supposed  to  have  a  Messianic  sense,  by  the  Jews  ;  and 

1  This  interpretation,  at  least  in  the  form  in  'which  we  know 
it,  regarded  the  verse  as  referring  to  Moses.  The  Targum  on 
the  Psalms  (above,  p.  86)-renders  :  "Thou  ascendedst  up  to  the 
firmament,  O  prophet  Moses,  thou  tookest  captives  captive, 
thou  didst  teach  the  words  of  the  law,  thou  gavest  them  as 
gifts  to  the  children  of  men  ;  but  the  rebellious  ones,  who 
become  proselytes,  turning  in  penitence,  upon  them  resteth 
the  Shechinah  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah  God."  The  Syriac 
Version,  the  Peshitto,  which  is  also  sometimes  influenced  by 
Jewish  exegesis,  has  "gave"  for  "received.''  The  LXX  here 
agrees  with  the  Hebrew. 


THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH    PSALM.  1 99 

yet,  unless  this  were  antecedently  clear,  no  argument 
could  be  based  upon  it.  But  St.  Paul,  in  fact,  merely 
quotes  the  passage,  because  he  sees  in  it,  as  under- 
stood by  the  Jews  of  his  own  day,  an  anticipation  of 
a  particular  truth  of  Christianity. 

The  verse,  then,  in  the  Psalm  is  descriptive  of  d.  past 
fact  ;  it  describes  the  historical  ascent  of  God  into  the 
"  tent"  prepared  for  Him  by  David  upon  Zion  :  it  is 
no  prediction  of  the  Ascension  of  our  Lord  ;  it  has 
no  reference  to  the  future.  At  the  same  time,  it  is 
true  that,  as  a  signal  and  conspicuous  event  in  the 
history  of  the  Old  Covenant,  it  may  be  viewed  as  a 
foreshadowing,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  termed,  a  type^ 
of  the  great  Ascent  and  Triumph  of  Christ,  the  King, 
to  heaven.  And  this,  no  doubt,  is  the  light  in  which 
St.  Paul  really  regarded  it.  The  ascent  of  the  Ark,  in 
which  God  was  present,  into  Zion,  prefigured  the 
Ascent  of  Christ  into  heaven.  The  captives  and 
spoil,  presupposed  in  the  very  fact  of  David's  con- 
quest of  the  stronghold  of  Zion — though  the  figure,  as 
used  by  the  Psalmist,  must  not  be  interpreted  too 
minutely — and  imagined  poetically  to  form  part  of 
the  procession,  prefigured  the  evil  powers  vanquished 
by  Christ,  and,  as  it  were,  led  visibly  in  triumph  by 
Him,  on  the  occasion  of  His  return  to  heaven.  Such 
a  view  of  the  work  of  Christ,  as  a  triumph,  is  in 
harmony  with  St.  Paul's  thought  elsewhere  ;  for 
instance,  with  the  passage  in  which  he  describes  Him 
as  stripping  the  powers  of  evil  from  off  Him,  and 
making   a   show   of  them    openly,   triumphing   over 


200  SERMON    X. 

thcni  upon  the  Cross.^  But  the  gifts  received 
among  men  cannot,  without  great  artificiahty,  be 
taken  as  prefiguring  anything  except  the  tokens 
of  homage  rendered  by  men  to  their  ascended  Lord. 
Here  St.  Paul  substitutes  a  different  sense  altogether  ; 
for  material  gifts  received  from  men,  he  substitutes 
spiritual  gifts  given  to  men.  In  so  doing,  however, 
as  his  been  said,  it  is  probable  that  he  followed  a 
current  interpretation,  or  paraphrase,  of  the  verse, 
which  made  it  suitable  for  quotation  in  a  context  in 
which  he  is  speaking  of  the  manifold  gifts  conferred 
by  Christ  upon  His  Church. 

The  Psalm  breathes  the  national  spirit  of  ancient 
Israel.  It  is  a  Psalm  in  which  a  strain  of  genuine 
religious  feeling  is  mingled  with  notes  of  battle  and 
victory  and  vengeance.  With  Israel's  foes  in  his 
mind,  the  Psalmist  writes — 

The  Lord  said,  I  will  bring-  back  from  Bashan, 
I  will  bring  them  back  from  the  depths  of  the  sea  : 
That  thou  mayest  dip  thy  foot  in  blood  ; 
That  the  tongue  of  thy  dogs  may  have  its  portion  from  the 
enemy. 

So  the  most  evangelical  of  the  prophets  does  not 
shrink  from  describing  Israel  as  a  "  sharp  threshing 
instrument  having  teeth,"  able  to  beat  small  and  to 
disperse  the  powers  opposed  to  it :  he  does  not 
shrink  from  threatening  Israel's  opponents  with 
deadly  internecine  strife — "And  I  will  feed  them  that 
oppress  thee  with  their  own  flesh  ;  and  they  shall  be 

^  Col.  ii.  15.     Cf.  above,  p.  189. 


THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH   PSALM.  201 

drunken  with  their  own  blood,  as  with  sweet  wine."  ^ 
It  could  not  be  otherwise  at  a  time  when  God's  truth 
was  confined  within  the  limits  of  a  particular  nation. 
National  and  religious  interests  were  inseparably 
associated  ;  and  the  continued  existence  of  the  nation, 
its  success  against  its  earthly  foes,  w^as  the  condition 
on  which  depended  the  preservation  of  the  truth 
committed  to  it.  The  long  invective  against  Babylon, 
which  now  occupies  the  greater  part  of  the  fiftieth  and 
fifty-first  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Jeremiah,^  shows  how 
intensely  national  feeling  was  aroused,  at  the  prospect 
of  the  approaching  fall  of  the  great  oppressing  power. 
It  was  just  the  occasion  to  call  forth  such  a  Psalm 
as  the  sixty-eighth, — a  triumph-song  inspired  by  the 
memories  of  the  past,  and  exultant  with  the  expect- 
ation of  the  future.  It  was  just  the  occasion  also  to 
stir  the  poet's  religious  imagination,  to  suggest  to 
him  visions  of  a  future  by  which  the  past  should  be 
eclipsed.  And  so  he  draws  his  ideal  picture  of  worship 
in  the  restored  Temple,  representing  kings  as  appear- 
ing there  with  offerings,  and  distant  nations  as  press- 
ing forward  to  assist.  The  unnamed  poet's  triumph- 
sung  has  become  the  inheritance  of  the  Christian 
Church  ;  and  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  many  hearts, 
and  many  times,  have  found  expression  in  his  jubilant, 
soul-inspiring  words.  The  desire  which  his  opening 
verses  embody  is  one  which  we  can  at  all  times  echo, 
without  the  smallest  reserve  :  the  majestic  ascription 

1  Is.  xli.  15-16  ;  xlix.  26. 
'^  Jcr.  1.  2— li.  58. 


202  SERMON    X. 

of  thanksgiving  and  praise,  with  which  he  closes,  can 
never   lose   its   impressiveness,    or   become    inappro- 
priate.    Tlie  blessings   bestowed  on  Israel,  to  which 
the  Psalm  so  abundantly  alludes,  may  be  regarded  as 
a  figure  of  the  blessings  bestowed  upon  the  Church  ; 
and  hence  its  suitability  as  one  of  the  special  Psalms 
for  Whitsunday.      The  triumph  of  Israel,   which  it 
describes  or  anticipates,  may  be  understood  naturally 
as  a  figure  of  the  triumph  of  the  Church  in  its  contest 
with  the  world,  a  triumph  in   part  accomplished,  in 
part  yet  future.     Only,  in  adopting  this  view  of  the 
Psalm,  we  must  be  content  with  the  general  parallel, 
we  must  not,  at  the  risk  of  indulging  in  fantastic  and 
arbitrary  combinations,  seek  to  accommodate   it   to 
minute   details.     And    so,  as    we    recite    the    Psalm, 
month    by    month,  and    year  by   year,  it  may   lend 
words,    far  nobler  than  any  which  we  could  supply, 
to   the    thoughts    and    feelings   appropriate   to   our- 
selves ;  the  Psalmist's  grateful  commemoration  of  the 
past,  and  his  joyous  anticipations  of  the  future,  we 
may  alike  transfer  to  our  own   lips  ;  his  enthusiasm 
may  evoke   an    echo   within    our   own    breasts ;    our 
emotions  maybe  stirred,  our  hearts  moved  to  respond, 
by  the   spirit   which   still  swells  and  throbs    in    the 
words  of  his  song.^ 

1  The  writer,  in  the  preceding  exposition,  has  adopted,  in 
doubtful  cases,  those  interpretations  which  appear  to  him  to  be 
the  most  probable,  though  without  at  all  wishing  to  deny  that 
the  Psalm  contains  passages  in  which  the  Hebrew  is  ambiguous 
or  obscure,  and  of  which  a  diflcrent  explanation  may  conse- 


THE   SIXTY-EIGHTH    PSALM.  203 

quently  be  legitimately  held.  Such  variations  in  detail,  how- 
ever, hardly  affect  the  general  sense  of  the  Psalm,  as  a  whole. 
Even,  moreover,  should  the  Psalm,  as  has  been  supposed — and 
there  are  circumstances  not  unfavourable  to  the  supposition — 
be  the  work  of  a  later  age  than  that  to  which  it  has  here  been 
referred,  the  goieral  interpretation  will  still  remain  the  same : 
it  will  have  been  prompted  by  some  occasion  siniilar  to  that 
which  has  here  been  postulated  for  it :  it  will  remain  the  expression 
of  the  poet's  grateful  recollections  of  the  past,  and  of  his  hopeful 
anticipations  for  the  future  (comp.  Cheyne,  Bainpto?i  Lectures, 
pp.  112  f.,  124  f. ;  Aids  to  the  Devout  Study  of  Criticism^  ^892, 
p.  323  ff.  ;  W.  R.  Smith,  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish 
Church,  ed.  2,  pp.  221,  439  f.).  Although  for  historical  purposes 
it  is  sometimes  impjrtant  to  determine,  if  possible,  the  date  of 
a  Psalm,  or  other  writing,  for  exegetical  purposes  it  is  often 
sufficient  if  we  are  able  to  re-construct,  from  the  allusions  which 
it  contains,  the  kind  of  occasion  out  of  which  it  may  have 
sprung,  and  the  situation  in  which  its  author  may  have  been 
placed.  Where  we  can  do  this,  even  though  it  be  but  approxi- 
mately, it  contributes  materially  to  our  comprehension  of  its 
contents  and  scope. 


SERMON    XI.^ 

THE  LORD   OUR  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Jer.  xxiii.  6  :  "  In  his  days  Jiidah  shall  be  saved,  and  Israel 
shall  dwell  safely :  and  this  is  his  name  whereby  he  shall  be 
called,  The  Lord  is  our  righteousness." 

The  Church's  year  is  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  last 
of  the  Sundays  after  Trinity  has  from  ancient  times 
been  celebrated  as  a  kind  of  eve  to  Advent.  In  the 
lessons  appointed  for  the  day,  our  Church  either,  as 
in  the  First  Lesson  this  morning,^  views  the  close  of 
the  Christian  year  as  symbolizing  the  close  of  human 
life,  or,  as  in  the  alternative  First  Lessons  for  the 
afternoon,^  bids  us  direct  our  thoughts  towards  the 
coming  of  Christ.  In  the  Collect  we  pray  God  to 
stir  up  the  wills  of  His  faitliful  people,  and  revive 
them  to  an  energy  of  service  such  as  we  may  natur- 
ally feel  to  be  needed  at  a  time  when  we  are  about 

1  Preached  in  the  Cathedral  on  the  last  Sunday  after  Trinity, 
1888. 

^  Eccl.  xi.-xii. 

^  Hag.  ii.  1-9  ;  Mai.  iii.-iv.  On  Hag.  ii.  7,  see  the  rendering 
of  the  Revised  Version  ;  and  in  illustration  of  the  thought,  comp. 
Is.  Ix.  5  end,  G\  7^  11'',  13^ 


THE    LORD    OUR    RIGHTEOUSNESS.  205 

to  enter  upon  a  new  year  of  Christian  life.  And  in 
lieu  of  a  passage  from  an  Epistle,  our  Church,  as  it 
does  upon  exceptional  occasions,  sets  before  us  a 
passage  from  one  of  the  prophets  which  likewise 
points  our  attention  to  the  advent  of  Christ. 

Something  is  sometimes  lost  Avhen  a  passage  of 
Scripture  is  severed  from  its  original  connexion. 
The  first  eight  verses  of  the  twenty -third  chapter  of 
Jeremiah  form  really  the  conclusion  to  the  twenty- 
second  chapter,  and  should  be  read  closely  in  con- 
nexion with  it.  Jeremiah  lived  towards  the  close 
of  the  monarchy  of  Judah,  and  he  passed  through 
experiences  more  tragic  and  varied  than,  so  far  as 
we  are  aware,  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  other  prophet. 
His  youth  was  passed  in  the  golden  years  of  Josiah  ; 
he  lived  to  see  Jerusalem  sacked,  the  Temple  burnt, 
himself  an  exile  in  Egypt.  But  Jeremiah  did  not 
merely  suffer  with  his  nation,  at  the  hand  of  external 
foes,  he  suffered  personally  at  the  hand  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  Both  his  denunciations  of  his  people's 
sins,  and  the  line  which  he  adopted  politically,^  made 
him  unpopular  ;  his  life  was  often  in  peril ;  on  one 
occasion  the  men  of  his  own  native  place  conspired 
to  slay  him;  ^  on  another  he  was  rescued  with  difficulty 
from  an  attempt  made  in  Jerusalem  to  adjudge  him 
worthy  of  death  ;  ^  while  under  Zedekiah  the  princes  of 

^  The  policy  of  submitting  to  the  yoke  of  the  Chalch\:ans  :  see 
(under  Jehoiakim,  R.C.  604)  xxv.  9-12;  (under  Zedekiah)  xxvii. 
4-13,  and  later,  during  the  siege,  xxi.  8-10,  xxxviii.  2. 

^  Jer.  xi.  18-23  (cf.  xv.  15,  xviii.  18,  xx.  7  ^i). 

3  Jer.  xxvi. 


206  SERMON    XI. 

Judah  secured  his  imprisonment  in  a  loathsome 
dungeon,  from  which  he  was  only  released  through 
the  intercession  of  a  foreigner,  who  interested  himself 
in  his  behalf.^ 

In  the  section  of  his  book  which  is  closed  by  the 
passage  selected  for  the  Epistle,  Jeremiah  reviews  the 
lives  and  characters  of  three  of  the  last  kings  of 
Judah.  "  Go  down  to  the  house  of  the  king  of 
Judah,  and  speak  there  this  word,  and  say,  Hear 
the  word  of  the  LORD,  O  king  of  Judah,  that  sittest 
upon  the  throne  of  David,  thou,  and  thy  servants, 
and  thy  people  that  enter  in  by  these  gates.  Thus 
saith  the  LoRD  :  Execute  ye  judgment  and  righteous- 
ness, and  deliver  the  spoiled  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
oppressor  :  and  do  no  wrong  to  the  stranger,  the 
fatherless,  and  the  widow,  neither  shed  innocent  blood 
in  this  place.  For  if  ye  do  this  thing  indeed,  then 
shall  there  enter  in  by  the  gates  of  this  house  kings 
sitting  upon  the  throne  of  David,  riding  in  chariots 
and  on  horses,  he,  and  his  servants,  and  his  people. 
But  if  ye  will  not  hear  these  words,  I  swear  by  myself, 
saith  the  LORD,  that  this  house  shall  become  a  deso- 
lation." ^  The  judgment  on  Jehoahaz,  who  reigned 
but  three  months,  being  at  the  end  of  this  time  de- 
posed by  the  Egyptians,  is  a  short  one  :  it  is  confined 
to  the  declaration  that  he  shall  not  return  to  Jeru- 
salem any  more,  but  "shall  die  in  the  place  whither 
they  have  led   him  captive,  and   shall  see  this  land 

^  Jer.  xxxvii.-xxxviii.  ^  Jer.  xxii.  1-5. 


THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  20/ 

no  more."  ^  It  is  otherwise  with  Jehoiakim,  whose 
reign  of  eleven  years  was  marked  by  covetousness, 
and  oppression,  and  judicial  murders.  Jehoiakim 
was  the  vassal  of  Egypt ;  he  both  taxed  the  people 
for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  demands  of  the 
Pharaoh,"^  and  having  a  passion  for  costly  buildings, 
oppressed  them  further  in  order  to  gratify  his  tastes. 
"  Woe  to  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  unrighteous- 
ness, and  his  chambers  with  injustice  ;  that  useth  his 
neighbour's  service  without  wages,  and  giveth  him 
not  his  hire  ;  that  saith,  I  will  build  me  a  wide  house 
and  spacious  chambers,  and  cutteth  him  out  his 
windows,  ceiling  it  with  cedar,  and  painting  it  with 
vermilion.^  wShalt  thou  reign,  because  thou  strivest 
to  excel  in  cedar?  did  not  thy  father" — the  noble- 
minded  Josiah — "  eat  and  drink,  and  do  judgment 
and  justice  ?  then  it  was  well  with  him.  He  judged 
the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy ;  then  it  was  well. 
Was  not  this  to  know  me,  saith  the  LORD  ?  But  thine 
eyes  and  thine  heart  are  set  only  upon  thy  dishonest 
gain,  and  to  shed  innocent  blood,  and  upon  oppres- 
sion, and  upon  violence,  for  to  do  it."  '^  Josiah,  when 
he  died,  had  been  missed  and  regretted  ;^  but  Jehoia- 
kim, his  son,  the  prophet  adds,  shall  be  "  buried  with 

1  Jer.  xxii.  10-12  :  see  2  Kings  xxiii.  33,  34^ 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  34%  35. 

3  Dividing  two  words  differently,  and  slightly  changing  the 
punctuation,  on  graniuiatical  grounds,  with  Hilzig,  Payne  Smith, 
Orelli,  and  others. 

*  Jer.  xxii.  13-17- 

^  2  Kings  xxiii.  30'^,  2  Chron.  xxxv.  24-25. 


208  SERMON    XI. 

the  burial  of  an  ass,  drawn  and  cast  forth  beyond  the 
gates  of  Jerusalem." 

The  prophet  in  tones  of  pathos  begins  again  :  "  Go 
up  to  Lebanon,  and  cry  ;  and  lift  up  thy  voice  in 
Bashan  :  and  cry  from  Abarim  ;  for  all  thy  lovers  are 
destroyed."  It  is  the  people  of  Judah  who  are  ad- 
dressed, personified  as  a  woman,^  and  bidden  thus  to 
lament  over  the  mournful  destiny  in  store  for  them. 
"  I  spake  unto  thee  in  tliy  prosperity  ;  but  thou  saidst, 
I  will  not  hear.  This  hath  been  thy  manner  from 
thy  youth,  that  thou  hast  not  listened  to  my  voice." 
And  soon  he  turns  to  contemplate  in  particular,  with 
feelings,  as  it  seems,  of  sympathy  and  regret,  the 
fate  of  the  third  king,  Jehoiachin,  who  after  a  reign 
of  a  hundred  days  was  carried  away  to  Babylon, 
and  languished  for  thirty  years  in  a  Babylonian 
dungeon.  "  Is  this  man  Coniah  a  despised  broken 
vessel  ?  is  he  a  vessel  wherein  is  no  pleasure  }  where- 
fore are  they  cast  out,  he  and  his  seed,  and  are  cast 
into  the  land  which  they  know  not  }"^     And  then,  at 

^  The  pronouns  in  the  original  are  feminine.  Such  personifi- 
cations are  frequent  in  the  prophets  :  comp.,  for  instance,  Jer. 
vii.  29,  X.  17,  xlvi.  1 1.  Abarim  is  named  as  a  height  whence  the 
whole  land  mi^ht  be  viewed  (Numb,  xxvii.  12).  The  "  lovers  " 
are  the  nations  whose  favour  Judah  had  courted  (Jer.  iv.  30':  cf. 
Ez.  xvi.  33,  37),  but  who  will  now  have  to  submit  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's yoke,  and  be  powerless  to  assist  her. 

^  xxii.  28.  Observe  the  form  of  the  sentence  (a  double  in- 
terrogation, followed  by  a  question  introduced  by  Wherefore.  .  ..?) 
expressive  of  mingled  pathos  and  surprise,  which  is  peculiar  to 
Jeremiah  (ii.  14,  31,  viii.  4-5,  19,  22,  xiv.  19,  xlix.  i,  cf.  xxx.  6). 
It  is  implied  that  the  first  two  interrogations  are  to  be  answered 
in  a  negative  sense. 


THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  209 

the  beginning  of  the  twenty-third  chapter,  he  sums 
up  his  verdict  upon  the  kings  and  rulers  of  his  day 
in  general,  under  the  figure  of  shepherds  who  have 
destroyed  and  scattered  the  sheep  entrusted  to  them. 
The  troubles  which  befel  Judah,  and  led  ultimately 
to  its  ruin,  are  traced  by  Jeremiah  to  the  shortsighted- 
ness and  studied  neglect  of  those  who  were  its  re- 
sponsible giudes.  '*  Ye  have  scattered  my  fleck  and 
driven  them  away,  and  have  not  visited  them  :  behold, 
I  will  visit  upon  you  the  evil  of  your  doings,  saith  the 
Lord.  And  I  will  gather  the  remnant  of  my  flock 
out  of  all  the  countries  whither  I  have  driven  them, 
and  will  bring  them  again  to  their  folds  ;  and  they 
shall  be  fruitful  and  multiply.  And  I  will  set  up 
shepherds  over  them,  which  shall  feed  them  ;  and 
they  shall  fear  no  more,  nor  be  dismayed,  neither 
shall  any  be  lacking,  saith  the  LORD."  The  un- 
righteous rulers  will  be  deposed  :  wise  and  just  ones,^ 
in  the  happier  future  which  Jeremiah  now  begins  to 
contemplate,  will  take  their  place.  There  follows  the 
passage  from  which  the  text  is  taken  :  "  Behold,  the 
days  come,  saith  the  LORD,  that  I  will  raise  up  unto 
David  a  righteous  Sprout,-  and  he  shall  reign  as  king, 

1  Comp.  (for  the  plural)  Jer.  iii.  15,  Is.  i.  26%  xxxii.   i^  Mic. 

V.  S^' 

^  Tzcmach  is  not  "a  branch"  (like  nefser,  Is.  xi.  i)  ;  it  is 
shooting  foliage  generally.  The  term  is  mostly  used  collectively, 
as  Gen.  xix.  25,  ^^iht  growth  of  the  ground,"  Ps.  Ixv.  10  (Heb. 
11),  "Thou  blessest  the  springing  {i.e.  the  young  growth) 
thereof,"  Ezek.  xvi.  7  (R.  V.  "bud"),  xvii.  9,  "the  leaves  of 
its  growth"  Is.  iv.  2  (sec  R.  V.  inarg.,  and  Orelli's  Old  Testament 

P 


210  SERMON    XI. 

and  deal  wisely,  and  shall  execute  judgment  and 
justice  in  the  land.  In  his  days  Judah  shall  be 
saved,  and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely  ;  and  this  is  his 
name  whereby  he  shall  be  called,  Jehovah  is  our 
righteousness."  The  righteous  king  whose  portrait 
Jeremiah  sketches  is  the  counterpart  to  the  imperfect 
rulers  of  his  own  time.  In  pointed  opposition  to 
Jehoiakim,  it  is  said  of  him  that  he  will  ''deal  wisely" 
— deal  with  such  wisdom  as  shall  ensure  success^ — 
and  "execute  judgment  and  justice  in  the  land." 
Then  Israel,  no  longer  the  prey  of  foreign  invaders, 
no  longer  liable  at  any  moment  to  be  driven  into 
exile,  will  "dwell  safely,"  under  the  guardianship  of 
its  ideal  king. 

But  in  what  sense  are  we  to  understand  the  name 
"Jehovah  is  our  righteousness".'*  In  order  to 
answer  this  question  we  must  turn  to  a  parallel 
passage  in  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah,  where  the 
same  expression  recurs.  Jeremiah  is  somewhat  apt 
to  repeat  passages  of  his  prophecies  with  slight  vari- 
ations of  phraseology  2 ;  and  one  very  similar  to  this 
recurs  in  the  great  group  of  prophecies  contained  in 
chaps.  XXX. — xxxiii.,  and  comprising  the  compara- 
tively few  words   of  consolation  which  it  was  given 

Prophecy^  p.  262),  Ixi.  10  (R.  V.  "  bud  ") ;  but  it  acquires  here 
an  individual  sense  in  virtue  of  the  context.  The  use  in  Zech. 
ill.  8,  iv.  12^  is  based  upon  this  passage. 

^  The  force  of  the  word  used  in  the  Hebrew.  See  the  margin 
of  the  Revised  Version  :  and  comp.  Josh.  i.  7,  i  Sam.  xviii.  5,  Is. 
lii.  13  (text  and  margin  Hkewise). 

^  See  the  citations  in  the  writer's  Introduction,  p.  259. 


THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  211 

him  to  address  to  his  people.  We  there  read:  "  In 
those  days,  and  at  that  time,  will  I  cause  a  Sprout 
of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David  ;  and  he  shall 
execute  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  land.  In 
those  days  shall  Judah  be  saved,  and  Jerusalem  shall 
dwell  safely  :  and  this  is  (the  name)  whereby  she  shall 
be  called,  Jehovah  is  our  righteousness."  ^  The 
name  which  is  applied  to  the  ideal  kin^  in  chap, 
xxiii.  is  applied  to  the  ideal  city  in  chap,  xxxiii.  : 
both  alike  are  to  be  called  by  the  same  significant 
title,  "  Jehovah  is  our  righteousness."  There  is  some- 
thing strange,  to  our  ears,  in  a  name  thus  formed  ; 
but  it  is  in  analogy  with  Hebrew  usage.  It  was 
the  custom  of  the  ancient  Israelites  to  form  proper 
names  compounded  with  one  or  other  of  the  sacred 
names  more  freely  than  we  should  do.  Thus  they 
gave  their  children  such  names  as  "  Jehovah  (or 
God)  heareth,"  or  "  remembereth,"  or  "  judgeth"  ;^  or 
"  Jehovah  is  a  help,"  or  "  is  opulence  " ;  ^  or  again, 
"  Jehovah  is  perfect,"  or  "exalted,"  or  "  great."*  And 
so  we  find  places  named  similarly  :  thus  we  read  of 
an  altar  called  "  Jehovah  is  my  banner,"  and  of  another 
called  "Jehovah  is  peace."  ^  Names  thus  formed  were 
felt,  no  doubt,  to  be  words  of  good  omen  ;  or  they 

1  Jer.  xxxiii.  15  f. 

2  Shemaiah  (or  Elishama),  Zechariah,  Shephatiah,  and  Jebo- 
shaphat. 

3  Joezer,  Joshua  (see  Job  xxxvi.  19,  Hcb.  and  R.  V.;  and  cf. 
xxxiv.  19). 

*  Jotham,  Jehoram,  Gedaliah. 
^  Ex.  xvii.  15  ;  Jud.  vi.  24. 


2  12  SERMON    XI. 

were  intended  to  mark  wliat  either  was,  or  was  hoped 
to  be  a  reality.  The  prophets,  by  an  extension  of 
this  usage,  not  unfrequently  employ  the  name  as  the 
mark  of  a  cliaracter,  to  be  given  to  a  person  or  place 
because  the  idea  which  it  expressed  was  really  in- 
herent in  him  or  it.  Thus  Isaiah,  speaking  of  the 
ideal  Zion  of  the  future,  says  :  "Afterward  thou  shalt 
be  called  The  city  of  righteousness,  the  faithful  city"^ 
— called  so,  namely,  because  the  qualities  of  righteous- 
ness and  faithfulness,  so  sadly  lacking  in  the  existing 
city,  will  be  conspicuous  in  it.  And  Ezekiel,  speak- 
ing of  the  restored  Zion,  says,  in  the  last  verse  of 
his  book  :  "  And  the  name  of  the  city  from  that  day 
shall  be,  Jehovah  is  there"  ;  he  imagines,  that  is,  a  sym- 
bolical title,  summing  up  in  a  brief  and  forcible  manner 
the  characteristic  state  or  condition  of  the  city.^ 

The  case  is  similar  in  Jeremiah.  The  city  bears  a 
name  indicating  the  character  of  its  inhabitants  :  God 
is  the  source  and  ground  of  their  righteousness. 
Jerusalem  is  to  become  the  home  and  abode  of 
righteousness,  through  the  gracious  operation  of  her 
God.  Here  a  similar  name  is  given  to  the  ideal  king, 
or  Messiah.  He  is  the  pledge  and  symbol  to  Israel 
that  their  righteousness  was  to  have  its  source  in 
God.  Just  as  Isaiah,  when  Judah  was  sorely  tried 
by  external  foes,  had  given  his  ideal  king  the  sym- 
bolical name  of  God  is  zvith  iis^  as  a  guarantee  that 

^  Is.  i.  26. 

^  Ez.  xlviii.  35.     For  other  examples  of  the  same  usage  see 
Is.  iv.  3,  XXX.  7,  Ixii.  2,  4,  12;  Jer.  xx.  3,  Hos.  i.  10^,  etc. 
3  Is.  vii.  14^'  (see  R.  V.  niarg.')  ;  comp.  viii.  8'',  lo^ 


THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  213 

the  Divine  help  would  be  assured  to  them  ;  so 
Jeremiah,  at  a  time  when  the  character  of  the  people 
had  largely  deteriorated,  gives  him  the  symbolical 
name  of  JeJiovah  is  our  righteousness^  significant  of 
the  fact  that  the  nation's  righteousness  can  only  be 
assured  by  God.^  The  ideal  ruler  whom  Jeremiah 
foresees  will  govern  his  nation  with  wisdom  and 
success  ;  and  under  his  gracious  administration,  the 
divinely  imparted  character  of  righteousness  will  be 
realized  by  the  nation. 

Jeremiah  does  not  state  in  the  passage  hoiu  he 
conceives  this  state  of  righteousness  to  be  brought 
about;  he  does  not  even  connect  it  distinctly  with 
the  work  of  the  ideal  ruler.  Jeremiah  pictures  the 
Messiah  as  the  author  of  civic  righteousness  ;  ^  but 
the  question  how  far  this  pre-supposes  righteousness 
in  the  heart  of  the  individual,  or  how  far  the  latter 
is  to  be  conceived  as  involved  in  the  Messiah's  work, 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  present  to  his  mind.  To 
a  certain  extent  the  passage  may  be  supplemented 
by  another,  in  which,  speaking  of  the  New  Covenant 

^  The  analogy  of  other  compound  proper  names  shows  th.it 
this  is  the  correct  rendering  of  the  name  (so  R.  V.),  not  that  of 
A.  v.,  ''The  Lord  our  righteousness,"  as  OrolH  (/.  c.  p.  334  f) 
rightly  observes.  The  significance  of  the  name  lies  not  in  the 
fact  that  the  Messiah  would  be  termed  "Jehovah  our  righteous- 
ness," but  in  its  expressing,  like  Immanuel  ("  God  is  with  us," 
not  "  God  with  us"),  the  relation  of  God  to  His  Church.  Simi- 
larly Keil,  in  his  Commentary,  ii^i  loc. 

^  "  Shall  do  judgment  and  justice  in  the  land  "  :  the  same 
phrase  is  used  of  David,  2  Sam.  viii.  15  ;  of  Solomon,  i  Kings 
X.  9  ;  of  Josiah,  Jer.  xxii.  15. 


214  SERMON    XI. 

to  be  concluded  in  the  future  with  the  people,  he 
says :  "  After  those  days,  saith  the  LORD,  I  will  put 
my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their 
hearts  ;  and  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my 
people.  And  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his 
neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know 
the  Lord  :  for  they  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least 
of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them,  saith  the  LORD  : 
for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  their  sin  will  I 
remember  no  more."  ^  Here  Jeremiah  promises  the 
advent  of  an  ideal  state,  in  which  the  sin  of  the 
people  is  forgiven,  and  its  nature  transformed ;  in 
which  Israel  shall  be  no  longer  subject  to  law  as  a 
command  imposed  from  without,  but  shall  be  ruled 
by  impulses  to  good,  acting  upon  the  heart  as  a 
principle  operative  from  within.  In  other  words, 
Jeremiah  anticipates  what  St.  Paul  terms  a  "  new 
creature," — the  re-creation  by  a  Divine  act  of  man's 
inner  nature.  But  in  neither  passage  does  Jeremiah 
explain  how,  or  by  what  mediate  agency,  he  con- 
ceived human  nature  to  be  thus  turned  to  righteous- 
ness— the  more  complete  delineation  of  the  picture 
was  reserved  for  the  future.  Nevertheless,  as  has 
been  said,^  these  two  passages  of  the  prophet  contain 
in  mice  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  1  he 
New  Covenant  is  to  be  a  state  of  righteousness  in  the 
Church,  effected  by  a  Divine  act  of  grace,  having  its 
source  in  God,  constituted  and  guaranteed  by  Him. 
"  Jehovah  is  our  righteousness,"  says  the  prophet, 
^  Jer.  xxxi.  33-34.  2  Orclli,  /.  c.  p.  335  f- 


THE   LORD   OUR   RIGHTEOUSNESS.  215 

usin^y  a  pregnant  Hebrew  idiom,  expressing  that  He 
is  the  ground  and  source  and  guarantee  of  our 
righteousness — ^just  as  we  read  in  Ps.  Ixviii.,  for  in- 
stance, that  "God  is  our  salvation";^  but  the  re- 
lation in  which  Jeremiah  conceived  his  righteous 
king  to  stand  towards  the  individual  IsraeHte  is  not 
distinctly  expressed  ;  and  hence  we  are  left  in  un- 
certainty whether  he  so  far  anticipated  the  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament  as  to  view  this  righteousness 
as  conferred  through  the  agency  of  the  same  ideal 
ruler,  whose  name  is  designed  as  the  symbol  of  the 
fact.  The  terms  in  which  he  speaks,  however,  do 
not  suggest  that  he  conceived  him  as  the  author  of 
justification,  in  the  theological  sense  of  the  term  ; 
they  imply  rather  that  he  pictured  him  as  ensuring, 
by  his  wise  and  just  administration,  the  conditions 
under  which  righteousness  of  life  might  be  maintained 
effectually  among  the  people. 

This,  then,  is  the  aspect  under  which  we  may  view 
the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah.  Interpreting  his  words  in 
the  light  of  the  future,  and  translating  them  into 
Christian  phraseology,  we  may  say  that  they  teach 
us  to  look  to  God,  as  the  source  of  our  righteousness 
through  Christ,  and  to  the  Church  as  the  sphere  in 
which,  by  the  means  which  He  has  appointed,  this 
righteousness  may  be  obtained.  And  so  the  lesson 
comes  suitably  as  an  introduction  to  the  season  of 
Advent.     It  suggests  to  us  one  of  the  most  funda- 

1  Ps.  Ixviii.  19  (Heb.  20).  Sec  the  Revised  \'crsion.  The 
rcnderin<r  of  the  Authorized  Version  is  inexact. 


2l6  SERMON    XI. 

mental  principles  of  our  Christian  faith.  It  points 
us  to  the  ideal  of  human  life,  to  the  ground  on  which 
it  rests,  to  the  Advent  of  Christ,  as  providing  the 
means  for  effectually  realizing  it.  It  bids  us  con- 
template Him  as  the  just  and  perfect  ruler  of  men, 
and  as  the  ever-present  embodiment  of  the  truth 
that  "  The  LORD  is  our  righteousness."  True,  the 
ideal  state  foreshadowed  by  Jeremiah  has  not  yet 
been  realized  :  the  law  of  God  is  not  yet  written  so 
indelibly  upon  the  hearts  of  men,  that  all  can  be 
said  to  act  upon  it  instinctively,  or  that  we  can  yet 
afford,  as  some  strange  sectaries  have  imagined  that 
we  could  afford,  to  dispense  with  teachers  and  in- 
structors, and  other  methods  of  reminding  us  what 
that  law  is.  But  it  is  upon  a  profound  sense  of  the 
requirements  of  human  nature  that  the  prophet's 
declaration  is  based  ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  far- 
reaching  and  comprehensive  anticipations  of  the 
ultimate  destiny  of  human  history  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  It  sets 
vividly  before  us  what  should  be  the  aim  of  our 
endeavours,  and  the  goal  of  our  aspiration.  And  so, 
every  time  that,  in  our  public  services,  the  Decalogue 
is  recited,  it  is  followed  by  the  petition,  expressed  in 
the  very  words  of  the  prophet,  that  the  laws  of 
which  it  is  the  sum  may  be  "  written  in  our  hearts." 
May  God's  laws,  as  we  thus  pray,  be  written  in  our 
hearts ;  and  may  we  realize  effectively  for  ourselves 
the  truth  that  "  The  LORD  is  our  righteousness  "  ! 


SERMON    XII. 1 

MERCY,   AND  NOT   SACRIFICE. 

Ho5.  vi.  6  :   "  For  I  desire  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the 
knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt  offerhigs." 

Such  are  the  words  —  familiar  to  us  from  their 
quotation  on  two  occasions  by  our  Blessed  Lord — 
with  which  the  prophet  Hosea  recalls  his  contempor- 
aries to  a  true  sense  of  what  God  demands  from  His 
worshippers.  Hosea  prophesied  in  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  and  the  greater  part  of  his  prophetical 
book "  dates  from  the  troubled  and  anxious  years, 
about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  B.C.,  through 
which  the  kingdom  of  Ephraim  was  hastening  to  its 
doom.3  The  dynasty  founded  by  Jehu  had  reached  its 
term  :  party  spirit,  which  there  was  now  no  strong 
hand  to  curb,  reigned  unchecked  ;  short-lived  kings 
arose,  who  were  able  to  retain  their  position  for  only 
a  few  months  or  years  ;  rival  factions,  at  issue  with 

1  Preached  in  the  Cathedral,  on  the  loth  Sunday  after  Trinity, 
1889. 

2  Viz.  chaps,  iv.-xiv. 

3  Chaps,  iv.-xiv.  were  probal^ly  written  during  the  reign  of 
Menahem  (see  2  Kings  xv.  17-22,  cf.  14-16),  ac.  745-737-  Samaria 
was  captured  by  Sargon,  King  of  Assyria,  i;.c.  722. 


2lS  SERMON    XII. 

each  other,  invoked  alternately  the  aid  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  hoping  thereby  to  secure  themselves,  if  not 
to  save  the  State  at  the  same  time,  from  ruin.^  Their 
efforts  were  of  no  avail.  Hoshea,  the  last  king,  who 
owed  his  throne  to  the  assistance  of  the  Assyrians,^ 
broke  with  them,  and  opened  treasonable  negotiations 
with  Egypt  ;  the  result  was  that  the  Assyrians  laid 
siege  to  Samaria,  and  after  three  years  took  it,  trans- 
porting many  of  its  inhabitants  to  different  parts 
of  the  Assyrian  empire,  and  bringing  thereby  the 
history  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  to  its  close. 

Hosea,  however,  prophesied  before  the  catastrophe 
actually  arrived,  though  he  saw  with  sufficient  dis- 
tinctness the  disaster  that  was  imminent^  He  saw 
that  the  political  and  social  disorder  in  Ephraim  had 
advanced  too  far  to  be  retrieved  ;  and  his  pages,  few 
though  they  are,  present  a  vivid  picture  of  the  self- 
indulgence  of  the  leaders  of  the  nation,  resulting  in 
the  degradation  of  public  life,  and  decay  of  the 
nation's  strength.*  The  consequences  of  Israel's  evil 
conduct  and  policy  are  summed  up  by  him  in  the 
epigrammatic  phrase,  which  speaks  with  terrible 
suggestiveness  :  "  For  they  sow  the  wind,  and  they 
shall  reap  the  whirlwind,"  adding,  with  a  change  of 

1  Comp.  Hos.  V.  13,  vii.  11,  viii.  9,  xii.  i. 

^  "  Pekah,  their  king,  1  slew  :  Hoshea  (to  rule)  over  them 
I  appointed,"  says  Tiglath-Pilescr  in  an  inscription  of  B.C.  734 
(Schrader,  Cuneiform  Liscriptioiis  a7td  the  Old  Testa)neiit^  p. 
255  f.).     This  fact  is  not  mentioned  in  the  narrative  of  Kings. 

2  E.g.  Hos.  V.  14,  vii.  16,  viii.  14,  ix.  6,  11-17,  x-  H'^S- 
*  E.g.  Hos.  vii.  3-7. 


MERCY,  AND   NOT   SACRIFICE.  219 

figure,  as  if  to  cut  off  even  the  last  desperate  chance 
of  escape  :  "  It  hath  no  stalk  :  the  blade  shall  yield 
no  meal  ;  if  so  be  it  yield,  strangers  shall  swallow  it 
up."  ^  Nor  is  Israel  morally  what  it  should  be  :  the 
picture  that  he  draws  is  darker  than  would  have  been 
thought  possible.  "  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye 
children  of  Israel :  for  the  LoRD  hath  a  controversy 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  :  there  is  no  faithful- 
ness,^  nor  kindness,  nor  knowledge  of  God  in  the 
land.  There  is  nought  but  swearing  and  breaking 
faith,  and  killing,  and  stealing,  and  committing 
adultery  :  they  break  through  (every  bond),  and  blood 
toucheth  blood  "  ^ — forming,  as  it  were,  a  continuous 
stream.  The  priests,  whose  duty  it  was  to  teach  the 
people  the  moral  precepts  of  God,  were  not  the  least 
offenders :  they  "  feed  on  the  sin  of  my  people,  and 
set  their  heart  on  their  iniquity,"  i.  e.  instead  of  striving 
to  check  iniquity,  they  long  to  see  it  abound,  in  order 
that  their  own  perquisites,  derived  from  the  people's 
offerings,  may  be  the  greater.^  They  even  went 
further  than  this  :  they  outraged  the  law  openly :  they 
formed  bands  for  the  purpose  of  intercepting  and 
murdering  pilgrims  journeying  to  the  sanctuaries.^ 
The  king  and  princes  are  represented  as  taking  a 
delight  in  schemes  of  lawlessness  and  wrong.*^     Thus 

1  Hos.  viii.  7. 

2  /.  c.  honesty,  integrity  :  in  his  dealings  ^vith  his  neighbour 
no  one  can  be  depended  upon.  The  meaning  of  the  term  a\  ill 
be  apparent  from  2  Kings  xii.  15  [Ileb.  16],  xxii.  7. 

3  Hos.  iv.  1-2  :  cf.  vi.  7-10,  vii.  1-2.  ^  Hos.  iv.  6-9,  esp.  8. 
*  Hos.  vi.  9.                                                   ^  Hos.  vii.  3. 


220  SERMON    XII. 

anarchy  and  civil  war,  combined  with  an  unspiritual 
rehgion  and  lax  moraHty,  are  bringing  Northern 
Israel  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  And  Ephraim,  though  ad- 
versity or  disappointment  may  impel  him  to  call  upon 
Jehovah  with  his  lips,  or  seek  to  propitiate  Him  with 
his  sacrifices,^  shows  no  sign  of  genuine  repentance. 

Hence  the   prophet,  speaking  in  Jehovah's    name, 
exclaims  :  "  O  Ephraim,  what  shall   I  do  unto  thee  ? 

0  Judah,  what  shall  I  do  unto  thee  ?  for  your  good- 
ness is  as  a  morning  cloud,  and  as  the  dew  that  goeth 
early  away."  ^  The  '*  goodness  " — i.  e.  dutiful  affection 
and  love,  whether  towards  God  or  man — which  Israel 
affects,  is  superficial  and  evanescent.  "  Therefore 
have  I  hewed  them  by  the  prophets  ;  I  have  slain 
them  by  the  words  of  my  mouth  :  and  my  judgment 
goeth  forth  as  the  light."  ^  Israel's  persistent  disregard 
of  Jehovah's  fundamental  demands  has  provoked  His 
interference  :  He  has  warned  them,  in  unsparing 
words,  of  the  fatal  issue  of  their  conduct ;  and  now 
His  judgment  is  prepared  to  issue  forth,  as  con- 
spicuous to  all  as  the  light  of  the  rising  dawn.     "  For 

1  desire  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice,  and  knowledge  of 
God  more  than  burnt  offerings."  The  word  rendered 
'tnercy  in  this  verse  is  the  same  as  that  rendered  good- 
ness in  verse  4, — a  fact  made  evident  in  the  Revised 
Version  by  the  same  marginal  alternative,"  Or,  kind- 
ness I'  attached  to  both.  "  Mercy  "  is  in  fact  too  narrow 
a  rendering :  mercy — as  Portia's  famous  speech  in  the 

1  Comp.  Hos.  ii,  7^',  v.  6,  vii.  14,  viii.  2. 

^  Hos.  vi.  4.  2  Hos.  vi.  5  (R.  V.  niarg.). 


MERCY,   AND    NOT   SACRIFICE.  221 

Merchant  of  Venice  may  remind  us — is  the  quality 
by  which  a  person  abstains,  out  of  motives  of  benevo- 
lence or  compassion,  from  exercising  his  legitimate 
rights  against  one  who  stands  towards  him  at  a  dis- 
advantage— as  when  a  person,  for  instance,  who  has 
been  injured,  renounces  his  right  to  exact  vengeance 
or  punishment  of  the  offender  :  but  the  quality  here 
intended  by  Hosea  is  wider  than  this  ;  it  is  a  quality 
exercised  mutually  amongst  equals  ;  it  is  the  regard 
and  consideration  in  intercourse  with  one  another, 
which,  when  observed  in  society  generally,  makes  life 
tolerable,  and  forms  the  bond  by  which  the  whole 
community  is  knit  together.^  It  is  that  kindliness 
of  feeling,  which  Hosea  had  previously  deplored  as 
lacking  among  the  Israelites,  and  the  absence  of 
which  was  accompanied  by  such  a  flagrant  disregard 
of  their  duty  towards  their  neighbour.-  It  is  the 
same  virtue  which  Hosea  demands  elsewhere  :  ^  "  And 
thou,  turn  thou  to  thy  God  :  keep  mercy  and  judgment, 
and  wait  on  thy  God  continually," — turn  unto  God, 
and  prove  the  reality  of  thy  penitence  by  dealing 
towards  men  with  blended  kindness  and  justice, 
and    cherishing    towards    God    a    spirit    of    trustful 

1  The  sense  of  TDP)  appears  perhaps  most  plainly  from  its  use 
in  the  common  phrase,  "to  do  cJu'sed  and  faithfulness  with  a 
person,"  Gen.  xxiv.  49  (R.  V.,  "deal  kindly  and  truly  with") 
xlvii.  29;  Josh.  ii.  14;  2  Sam.  ii.  6.  (R.  V.,  "  shew  kindness  and 
truth  to  '')  i.  e.  to  show  towards  one  the  kindness  and  faithfulness 
of  a  true  friend  (comp.  Ex.  xxxiv.  6,  of  Jehovah,  "plenteous  in 
kindness  and  faithfulness";  also  '•kindness"  alone.  Gen.  xxiv. 
12,  14,  xl.  14  ;  2  Sam.  ii.  5,  ix.  i,  3,  7,  &c.). 

2  Hos.  iv.  i'\  •*  Ilos.  xii.  6. 


222  SERMON    XII. 

faith.  It  is  an  aspect  of  that  quality  of  lovc^  which,  as 
the  bond  uniting  God  and  His  people,  as  well  as  the 
individual  Israelites  to  each  other,  is  a  fundamental 
element  in  Hosea's  teaching.  Hosea  conceives  the 
relation  of  Jehovah  to  His  people  as  a  moral  union^ 
marked  by  affection  and  regard  on  the  one  side,  and 
demanding  a  corresponding  affection  and  regard  on 
the  other.  In  the  first  three  chapters  of  his  prophecy, 
the  figure  of  the  marriage-tie  is  beautifully  and  touch- 
ingly  applied  for  the  purpose  of  symbolizing  this  :  we 
have  set  before  us  successively  the  choice  and  affec- 
tion of  the  husband,  the  reciprocal  fidelity  and  loyalty 
and  love,  which  for  a  while  ensued,  then  the  faith- 
lessness and  the  breach  ^  ;  after  this,  finally,  not  the 
husband's  permanent  alienation,  but,  after  the  neces- 
sary discipline,  His  willingness,  if  she  shows  herself 
to  be  sincerely  penitent,  to  renew  His  past  relations 
with  His  erring  spouse,  and  even  to  make  the  bond 
between  them  closer  and  dearer  than  it  had  been 
before.^  Elsewhere,  another  type  of  domestic  affec- 
tion supplies  the  figure  under  which  the  same  prophet 
exemplifies  the  patient  and  loving  regard  which  had 
from  the  first  been  displayed  by  Jehovah  towards  His 
people.  "  When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved 
him,  and  called  my  son  out  of  Egypt."  But  Israels 
response  was  imperfect :  "  The  more  they  " — i.  e. 
God's  messengers — "  called  them,  the  more  they  went 
from  them  :  they  sacrificed  unto  the  Baals,^  and  burnt 

^  Hos.  ii.  2-13.  2  Hq3  ii    14-23,  esp.  19-20. 

^  /.  c.  the  various  local,  or  special,  Baals,  worshipped  at  differ- 


MERCY,   AND    NOT   SACKIFICE.  223 

incense  to  graven  images.  And  yet  I  had  taught 
Ephraim  to  go,  taking  them  on  my  arms  ^  ;  but  they 
knew  not  that  I  healed  them  "  ;  they  were  unconscious 
of  the  providence  watching  over  their  welfare,  and 
assisting  in  the  development  of  their  national  strength. 
"  I  drew  them  with  cords  of  a  man,  with  bands  of 
love  ;  and  I  was  to  them  as  they  that  take  off  the 
yoke  on  their  jaws,  and  I  laid  meat  unto  them." '^ 
Not  with  violence,  but  gently,  with  tender  indulgence 
and  consideration,  had  they  been  treated  ;  Jehovah 
had  shown  towards  them  the  love  and  regard  of  a 
father.  But  Israel,  as  an  ideal  community,  is  Jehovah's 
spouse ;  and  Israel,  as  an  aggregate  of  individual 
persons,  is  Jehovah's  family  ;  and  between  the 
members  of  a  family  governed  by  such  a  Head, 
mutual  loyalty  and  kindness,  mutual  consideration 
and  regard,  ought  instinctively  to  prevail,  and  form 
a  natural  bond  regulating  the  intercourse  of  each 
with  his  fellow-man.^ 

ent  places,  or  under  particular  titles.  On  Phoenician  inscriptions 
we  read,  for  instance,  of  Baal  of  Tyre,  Baal  of  Lebanon,  Baal  of 
Tarsus,  Baal  of  Heaven,  Baal  Hamman  (z'.6'.,  the  Solar  Baal), 
&:c.  Comp.  the  writer's  Notes  on  the  Hebrew  Text  of  Samuel 
(1890),  p.  50  f. 

1  Slightly  emending  the  existing  Hebrew  text  (^riyilT  Vy  Dn||^), 

2  Hos.  xi.  1-4;  comp.  iii.  i,and  (in  the  promise  for  the  future) 
xiv.  4.  Cofds  of  a  ina/i,  i.  e.  "  not  with  the  violence  suited  to  an 
unruly  heifer  (cf.  x.  11),  but  with  the  'cords  of  men'  (z.  e.  such 
as  men  can  bear),  did  Jehovah  win  His  people's  obedience" 
(Chcyne,  ad  toe). 

3  On  the  characteristic  teaching  of  Hosea,  sec  more  fully  the 
excellent  chapter  on  Hosea  in  W.  R.  Smith's  Prophets  of 
Israel,  p.  154  ff.  ;  or  the  Introduction  to  Prof.  Cheync's  useful 


224  SERMON    XII. 

"  For  I  desire  kindness,  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the 
knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt  offerings."     By 
"  knowledge  of  God,"  Hosea  here  means  not  a  merely 
intellectual  apprehension  of  His  nature,  but  a  know- 
ledge displaying  itself  in  conduct,  a  knowledge  of  His 
power.  His  influence,  and  His  character,  resting  upon 
spiritual  experience,  and  resulting  in  moral  practice. 
A  passage  of  Jeremiah  explains  the  sense  in  which 
the  expression  is  to  be  understood.     Speaking  of  the 
just   and   virtuous  Josiah,  and  contrasting  him  with 
his  degenerate  son  Jehoiakim,  Jeremiah  says :   "  He 
judged  the  cause   of  the   poor  and   the  needy,  then 
it  was  well  (with  him).      IVas  not  this  to  hiow  me? 
saith    the    Lord.      But    thine    eyes   and    thine    heart 
are  set  only  upon   thy  dishonest  gain,  and  to  shed 
innocent    blood,    and    upon    oppression,   and    upon 
violence,  for    to   do  it."     The   "  knowledge "  of  God 
is  identified  here  with  equity,  justice,  unselfishness, 
philanthropy — in  a  word,  with  the  due  observance  of 
those  moral  duties  which  the  society  in  which  we  live, 
and  our  relation  to  other  men,  impose  upon  us — the 
very  opposite  of  the  violence,  and    oppression,  and 
self-assertion    of  which    Jehoiakim    was    guilty,    and 

and  sympathetic  Commentary  on  this  prophet  in  the  Cambridge 
Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges,  pp.  15  ff.,  22  ff.  The  truth  that 
Jehovah  loves  Israel  (Hos.  iii.  i,  ix.  15,  xi.  i,  4,  xiv.  4),  if  the  date 
assigned  by  critics  to  Deuteronomy  be  right  (for  it  is  found  in 
that  book,  Deut.  vii.  8,  13,  x.  15,  xxiii.  5),  is  a  new  idea  in  the 
religious  conceptions  of  Israel.  In  subsequent  prophets  the  idea 
recurs — Jer,  xxxi.  3  ;  Is.  xliii.  4  ;  Ixiii.  9  ;  Mai.  i.  2  ;  and  of  the 
future,  Zeph.  iii.  17. 


MERCY,   AND   NOT   SACRIFICE.  225 

which  were  rife  in  Hosca's  day  in  the  kingdom  of 
Israel.  The  IsraeHtes,  Hosea  says,  had  misappre- 
hended the  nature  of  Jehovah's  demands  :  they 
were  prompt,  and  even  punctiHous,  in  the  performance 
of  outward  rehgious  ceremonies,  supposing  that  this 
would  satisfy  His  requirements ;  but  what  He  delighted 
in  was  conduct  governed  consistently  by  a  moral 
purpose,  and  a  life  regulated  by  a  cheerful  regard 
for  the  rights  and  needs  of  other  men  :  sacrifice  was 
offered  properly  as  the  expression  of  a  right  state  of 
heart,  but  it  could  not  be  accepted  in  lieu  of  it  ;  it 
was  valueless  unless  accompanied  by  sincerity  of 
purpose  and  integrity  of  life. 

Mankind  have  in  all  ages  shown  a  readiness  to 
conform  with  the  external  forms  and  offices  of  re- 
ligion, while  heedless  of  its  spiritual  precepts,  and 
of  the  claim  which  it  makes  to  regulate  their  conduct 
and  their  life.  The  faults  that  have  been  thus  in- 
dulged in  under  the  cloke  of  religion  have  differed  : 
sometimes  they  have  been  worldliness,  ambition, 
sensual  indulgence  ;  sometimes  they  have  been  in- 
justice, oppression,  hard-heartedness,  and  the  many 
other  modes  in  which  a  love  of  dishonest  gain 
manifests  itself  ;  sometimes  they  have  consisted  in 
spiritual  pride,  vanity,  and  exclusiveness  ;  and  it  has 
been  the  aim  of  every  great  religious  reform,  and  of 
every  great  spiritual  teacher,  to  awaken  in  men  a 
sense  of  what  the  profession  of  a  religion  really 
involves,  and  to  bring  them  to  understand  the  virtue 

of  consistency. 

Q 


226  SERMON    XII. 

Thus  the  teaching  of  Hosea  is  not  different  from 
that  of  the  other  great  prophets  on  the  same  subject. 
Amos,  writing  a  few  years  earHer,  represents  God  as 
repudiating  indignantly  the  offerings  and  services  of 
the  Israehtes :  '*  I  hate,  I  reject  your  pilgrimages, 
and  I  will  take  no  delight  in  your  solemn  assemblies.  .  . 
Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs  :  for 
I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  viols.  But  let 
judgment  roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as 
an  ever-flowing  stream."  ^  And  Isaiah,  a  few  years 
later,  speaks  in  the  same  strain,  alluding  contemptu- 
ously to  the  formal  observance  of  religious  services, 
or,  as  we  should  say,  of  Church-going,  as  Temple- 
treading  2  :  "  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude  of 
your  sacrifices  unto  me }  saith  the  LORD  :  I  am  full 
of  the  burnt  offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed 
beasts  ;  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks, 
or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats.  When  ye  come  to 
appear  before  me,  who  hath  required  this  at  your 
hand,  to  trample  my  courts  ?  .  .  .  Your  new  moons 
and  your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth  :  they  are  a 
cumbrance  unto  me  ;  I  am  weary  to  bear  them.  .  . 
Wash  you,  make  you  clean  ;  put  away  the  evil  of 
your  doings  from  before  my  eyes  ;  cease  to  do  evil  : 
learn  to  do  well  ;  seek  judgment,  set  right  the 
oppressor,  judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow."  ^ 

1  Amos  V.  21,  23,  24. 

-  G.  A.  Smith,  The  Book  of  Isaiah  in  the  "  Expositor's  Bible," 
vol.  i.  (1888),  p.  7. 
^^  Is.  i.  II,  12,  14,  16,  17. 


00  7 


MERCY,  AND    NOT  SACRIFICE.  s^/ 

And  another  prophet,  writing  probably  in  the  dark 
days  of  Manasseh,  having  represented  the  people  as 
asking :  "  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  Jehovah, 
and  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ?  shall  I  come 
before  him  with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves  a  year 
old  ?  Will  Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands  of 
rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  shall 
I  give  my  firstborn  for  my  transgression,  the 
fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  "  meets 
their  question  with  the  humiliating  reply :  "  He  hath 
shewed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good  ;  and  what  doth 
Jehovah  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
kindness^  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ? "  ^ 

In  the  days  of  Christ,  the  temper  manifested  by  the 
Israelites  of  an  earlier  age  had  become  intensified,  and 
the  practices  which  were  the  expression  of  it  hiad  been 
reduced  to  system.  The  spirit  of  legalism  had  be- 
come all-powerful ;  and  those  who  were  not  absorbed 
in  worldly  interests,  and  indifferent  to  religion  al- 
together, were  spell-bound  under  its  influence.  The 
aim  of  the  teachers  of  the  day,  in  their  own  language, 
was  to  set  a  "  fence  "  about  the  law  - — to  guard  the 
letter  of  the  law  against  violation  by  surrounding  it 

1  Mic.  vi.  6-8.     Comp.  also  Jer.  vi.  20,  vii.  1-15. 

2  "  Make  a  fence  about  the  law,"  is  one  of  the  maxims,  quoted 
from  the  teachers  of  a  former  generation,  with  which  the  treatise 
of  the  Mishnah  called  Pirkc  AbJioth  opens.  See  C.  Tayloi-'s 
edition,  published  under  the  title  Sayings  of  the  Jewish  Fathers 
(1877),  p.  26  ;  also  Ewald,  History  of  Israel,  v.  p.  195  ;  Kuencn, 
Religion  of  Israel,  iii.  pp.  2,  15  ;  Edcrshcim,  Life  and  Times  of 
Jesus,  i.  pp.  95,  98,  100  f. 


228  SERMON    XII, 

with   by-rules,   which    increased    in    minuteness    and 
complexity  until  they  threatened  to  cover  the  whole 
field  of  human  conduct.     This  multiplication  of  rules 
naturally  gave  rise,  firstly,  to  contrivances  for  evading 
them  when  they  became  intolerably  burdensome  ;  and 
secondly,  to  the   neglect  of  the  very   system    which 
they  were  intended  to  guard,  by  the  attention  being 
unduly  concentrated   upon   outward  conformity  with 
the  rule.     The  consequence  was  that  a  ceremonialism 
arose  far  in  excess  of  that  combated   by  Hosea  or 
Isaiah,   from  which  followed  inevitably  the  spiritual 
vices  of  ostentation,  vanity,  and  self-complacency,  on 
the  part  of  those  who  were  obedient  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  combined  with  censoriousness  towards  any 
of  their  neighbours  who  evinced  a  disregard  for  such 
observances.     These  are  the  faults  of  the  Pharisees, 
as  they  stand  before  us  in  the  pages  of  the  Gospels. 
The  importance  attached  to  the  newly-devised  rules, 
the  so-called  "  fence  "  about  the  law,  forming  a  burden 
to  the  shoulders,  heavy  to  be  borne  ^ ;  the  sophistical 
evasions,  as,  for  instance,  that  by  which  a  man  escaped 
the  duty  of  providing  for  his  parents  ^ ;  the  scrupu- 
lousness with  which  the  tithe  on  mint,  and  anise,  and 
cummin    was   paid,  while   justice,    mercy,   and    faith 
were  unheeded  ;  the  cup  and  the  platter  clean  with- 
out,  but  within    full    of  extortion   and   excess  ;   the 
prayers  said  at  street  corners,  and  alms  proclaimed 
with  the  trumpet  ;  the  thanks  rendered  for  being  an 
exemplar  of  virtue  and  piety,  and  the  contempt  of 
^  Matthew  xxiii.  4.  ^  Matthew  xv.  5  ;  Mark  vii.  1 1. 


MERCY,   AND   NOT   SACRIFICE.  229 

publicans,  and  all  base  wicked  people  ^ — these  are  the 
habits  and  principles  which  characterize  the  Pharisees, 
in  whom  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  became 
finally  de-spiritualized,  and  the  hoUowness  and  un- 
reality of  whose  pretensions  were  exposed  in  the 
denunciations  uttered  against  them  by  Christ.  It  is 
natural  that,  in  doing  this,  our  Lord  should  revert  to 
the  purer  spiritual  perceptions  possessed  by  the  older 
prophets,  and  point  His  hearers  to  writings,  the 
authority  of  which  they  would  recognize  themselves. 
The  verse  from  Hosea  is  quoted  by  Him  twice.^ 
Once  when  the  Pharisees  complained  that  He  took 
meals  with  publicans  and  sinners,  and  He  replied  : 
"  They  that  are  whole  have  no  need  of  a  physician 
but  they  that  are  sick.  But  go  ye  and  learn  what 
this  meaneth,  *  I  desire  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice '  : 
for  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners." 
The  attitude  of  mind  which  shrank  from  consorting 
with  the  "  publicans,"  or  tax-gatherers,  whom  the 
Pharisees  abhorred,  and  the  "  sinners,"  whom  they 
viewed  with  lofty  disdain,  is  here  shown  by  Christ 
to  be  incompatible  with  the  spirit  of  charity  and 
affectionate  regard  towards  our  fellow-creatures,  in- 
culcated by  the  prophet  of  old.  The  other  occasion 
was  when  His  disciples  began  to  pluck  and  eat  the 
ears  of  corn  on  the  Sabbath.  The  legalists  of  Christ's 
day  regarded  desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  even  in  the 
minutest  particular,  as  a  most    heinous  offence,  and 

1  Matthew  xxiii.  23,  25  ;  vi.  2,  5  ;   Luke  xviii.  11  f. 
''^  Matthew  ix.  13  ;  xii.  7. 


230  SERMON    Xll. 

extraordinary  provisions  were  framed  by  them  with 
the  object  of  securing  its  due  observance.  To  pluck, 
and,  as  St.  Luke  adds,^  to  rub  ears  of  corn  in  the 
hand,  were,  respectively,  species  of  reaping  and  thresh- 
ing ;  they  were  accordingly  declared  unlawful^;  and 
being  indulged  in  by  the  disciples,  they  at  once 
elicited  from  the  Pharisees  the  unfriendly  comment : 
"  Behold  thy  disciples  do  that  which  it  is  not  lawful 
to  do  upon  the  Sabbath  day."  Our  Lord,  after  re- 
ferring His  objectors  to  the  example  of  David,  and 
the  regular  practice  of  the  priests,  adds  :  "  But  if  ye 
had  known  what  this  meaneth,  '  I  desire  mercy,  and 
not  sacrifice,'  ye  would  not  have  condemned  the 
guiltless."  That  is,  their  condemnation  of  the  disciples 
proceeded  from  a  perverted  sentiment.  Ceremonial 
observances  constituted  in  their  eyes  the  whole  of 
religion  :  hence  they  passed  a  harsh,  inconsiderate 
judgment  on  the  manner  in  which  on  the  Sabbath 
day  the  disciples  had  satisfied  the  cravings  of  hunger  : 
they  had  not  learnt  the  lesson  which  their  own 
prophet  taught,  and  had  condemned  in  consequence 
men  who  were  innocent. 

Mercy,  and  not  sacrifice  !  The  knowledge  of  God, 
rather  than  burnt  oft'erings  !  The  saying  is  one  of 
those  pregnant  ones  which  abound  in  the  writings  of 
the  prophets,  and  which,  expanded  and  generalized, 
became  the  basis  of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  Christ 
emancipated  His  contemporaries,  and  through  them 

1  Luke  vi.  i. 

■^  Comp.  Edersheim,  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus,  ii.  pp.  56,  780. 


MERCY,   AND    NOT   SACRIFICE.  23 1 

the  generations  to  come,  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter ; 
and  though  the  lesson  which  He  taught  has  sometimes 
been  obscured,  sometimes  been  on  the  point  of  fading 
from  the  memory  of  His  Church,  He  has  left  an 
example  and  a  method  which  could  not  be  mistaken, 
and  to  which  reformers  in  successive  ages  might  turn 
as  to  a  beacon  in  the  gloom.  Christ  enforced  anew, 
more  comprehensively  than  could  be  done  by  the 
prophets  who  lived  while  the  older  Dispensation  was 
still  in  force,  and  who  had  no  thought  of  overthrowing 
it,  the  true  character  of  religion,  the  true  righteous- 
ness of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  True  religion  had 
its  seat  in  the  heart ;  it  did  not  consist  in  conformity 
with  rules.  Religious  observances  had  their  value  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  the  spiritual  life,  for  giving 
expression  to  feelings  of  gratitude  or  devotion,  for 
addressing  petitions  to  the  Most  High,  or  as  being  the 
appointed  channels  for  the  reception  of  Divine  grace  : 
it  was  an  abuse  to  take  those  institutions,  which  were 
most  completely  of  a  formal  and  ceremonial  character 
to  make  them  an  end  in  themselves,  and  to  treat  their 
observance  as  constituting  the  whole  duty  of  man. 
Of  one  of  the  most  sacred  institutions  of  the  older 
Dispensation  Christ  did  not  shrink  from  saying  : 
"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for 
the  Sabbath."  The  citizen  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
was  recognized,  not  by  external  marks,  but  by  God- 
like dispositions,  by  humility,  meekness,  the  aspiration 
after  goodness,  simplicit)'.  The  law  of  charity,  of 
forgiveness,  of  philanthropy,  of  mercy,  took  the  place 


232  SERMON    XII. 

of  the  law  of  works  and  ceremonial  observances. 
And  thus  Christ  was  enabled  also  to  teach  a  new 
doctrine  as  to  man.  Those  whom  the  Jews  at  large 
viewed  as  aliens — though  here  too  He  had  the  prophets 
as  His  predecessors  ^ — He  invited  into  His  fold  : 
those  whom  the  Pharisees  treated  as  outcasts,  He 
befriended.  He  taught  the  worth  of  the  individual 
man,  irrespectively  of  possessions,  position,  or  char- 
acter ;  and  He  did  this  practically  by  loving  the 
neglected,  the  people  of  no  social  account.  He 
taught,  further,  a  larger  conception  of  God,  a  con- 
ception of  God  not  only  as  the  Father  of  the  Hebrew 
nation,^  or  its  royal  Head,  but  as  the  Father  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  race,  as  One  who  bestows  His 
gifts  of  nature  equally  upon  all,  who  is  ready  to  enter 
with  all  into  relations  of  grace,  and  who  turns  the 
eye  of  His  favour  rather  towards  the  penitent  publican 
than  towards  the  self-satisfied  and  exclusive  religionist. 
And  thus  the  moral  teachings  of  the  prophets,  broad- 
ened, deepened,  enlarged,  merge  in  Christ's  doctrine 
of  the  true  righteousness  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

1  E.g.  Is.  ii.  2-3,  xix.  23-5;  Jer.  iii.  17  ;  Zeph.  iii.  9;   Is.  xlii. 
i^,  4,^  xlix.  6^,  li.  4^,  Ivi.  6-7,  &c. 

2  Is.  Ixiii.  16,  Ixiv.  8  (above,  p.   190)  ;  comp.  Deut.  xxxii.  6; 
Jer.  iii.  19,  xxxi.  9;  Mai.  ii.  10;  also  Ps.  Ixviii.  5,  ciii.  13. 


THE    END. 


»       Richard  Clay  <Sr*  Sons^  Limited^  London  ^^  Bungay. 


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